IS fanatics are turning to biological and chemical weapons to target
Britain and Europe, a spy chief warned yesterday.
Abdelhak Khiame, Morocco’s head of counter-terrorism, told how his agents had
smashed a plot to use mustard gas — and discovered terrorists had created a
toxin so lethal it would be fatal even if touched.
The ISIS cell was planning chemical and biological attacks on four Moroccan
cities plus a strike by a 16-year-old suicide bomber against a government
building or tourist area.
Mr Khiame’s Bureau Central d’Investigations Judiciares intelligence team
pounced 24 hours before the atrocities were meant to start.
And he warned they would have been a dry run for similar attacks on UK and
European targets.
He said: “It’s very possible that Daesh would use this process to target
Britain and other EU countries.
“It already has brigades of children and we know they train them in their
camps looking to use them in terrorist attacks in Europe. As for chemical
weapons, we have seen here how easy they are to prepare.
“The substances used in the plot we dismantled in February in Morocco are
available in shops all over Britain, all over Europe.
“They can use very simple substances in order to develop these weapons and it
is very easy.”
The Moroccan ISIS cell smashed in February had ten members and had built up an
arsenal of weapons shipped in from Libya.
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BCIJ agents believe the group was creating mustard gas.
But it was the contents of three jars found hidden at one property that caused
the deepest alarm.
Inside were traces of the deadly Epsilon neurotoxin, a biological agent that
is exceptionally lethal.
It causes brain tissue and nerve damage and can be used to contaminate food,
water or even be sprayed into the air using aerosols.
Mr Khiame, 58, speaking from the BCIJ’s heavily fortified HQ in Morocco’s
capital Rabat, said: “One of the substances we found was so dangerous that
if it was applied to the door handle of a car and you touched it, you would
die.
“The aim was to shake the people’s faith in the Moroccan authorities to
protect them, but it failed.
“Yet the making of some of these toxins involved some substances, which I will
not disclose, and a mouse and a lemon.
“They were left in a jar to concentrate and the toxic substance was created.
That is how simple it was. It’s very simple and affordable for them to make
these weapons. And that is deeply concerning.”
Mr Khiame’s remarks will trigger fears that ISIS is planning to switch tactics
in the wake of the Brussels bomb blasts that left 32 dead and 340 wounded.
His elite unit is seen by Western security services as a key front-line player
in the war on terror.
It was Mr Khiame who gave the French authorities vital information that led
them to Paris attack plotter Abdelhamid Abaaoud, shot dead in a raid on his
hideout in a suburb of the French capital.
The BCIJ is also involved in the Belgian bombing investigation. Several
members of the Belgian ISIS cell responsible have links to Morocco.
They include Najim Laachraoui, 24, the bomb-maker killed in the airport
blasts.
Mr Khiame’s team has also smashed 25 ISIS plots at home since being formed a
year ago.
But he is concerned that Belgium and France are not doing enough to counter
their home-grown IS menace.
He said: “Belgium is becoming the Daesh of Europe. We we don’t see Belgians
wanting to go to Syria. They are happy to attack their own country.”
Mr Khiame said ISIS will attack any country that opposes its ideology. He
added: “Terrorism has no religion and no nationality.
“So all the countries across the world are a target now.”
Mr Khiame said he hoped British people will remember IS is hated by most
Muslims.
He said: “I fight terrorism every day because these people deface the covenant
of Islam I believe in.”
