Five ISIS Attacks in Europe Since Wednesday Shake the Continent

Following five deadly terror attacks that have been claimed by the Islamic State since Wednesday in cities across Europe, fear is spreading while officials charged with public safety are questioning their ability to defend against ISIS. Beginning with a bomb that exploded on Wednesday in Alcanar, Spain, killing one in an apparent prelude to Thursday and Friday’s vehicular murders of 14 in Barcelona and Cambrils; two stabbing deaths in Turku, Finland, and seven injuries in Russia; the incidents continue to mount. Counter-terrorism officials who previously wrote-off such incidents as being “lone-wolf” in nature now see the evidence of ISIS cells at work and the coordination and sophistication that it suggests. Spanish police have expressed belief that the Barcelona and Cambrils incidents are connected. They also surmise that the accidental explosion of a gas canister being assembled into an explosive device in Alcanar prevented a much worse death toll.