Al-Qaeda sets fire to Europe

Alexander Bortnikov

The director of the FSB of Russia Alexander Bortnikov laid guilty for forest fires in southern Europe in the summer of 2012 at al-Qaeda terrorists, RIA Novosti reports.

Bortnikov said this at the 11th International Conference of the heads of special services in Moscow. Bortnikov emphasized that this conclusion was made on the basis of information published on extremist sites and forums.

In particular, they are given instructions for the organization of “Forest Jihad”, for example, how to choose the right place to arson and go unnoticed.

Alexander Bortnikov noted that the arson is part of the “thousands of injections” strategy, which allows you to apply severe economic and moral damage without serious preparation and large technical costs. At the same time, catching the arsonists is almost impossible.

Evgeny Satanovsky

The President of the Institute of the Middle East Yevgeny Satanovsky told Polit.ru that the “thousands of injections” were previously well worked out in Israel. According to Satanovsky, there forest fires arise exclusively "to combat the occupation regime."

“The main task of the strategy is to harm wherever possible. Throw stones, ram cars, excite hatred on the Internet. Using modern media - Twitter and Facebook - organizing any network community is very simple. It will come out no worse than that of a full -fledged terrorist cell. Now Al-Qaeda has at least 10 thousand sites where you can find any instructions-from forest arson to the schedule of airports in New York. Put the car across the road somewhere in the south of France-you will call the transport collapse as a whole area. And if a couple of dozen cars? " - says Satanovsky.

Terrorists, human factor or weather

Ecologists doubt the involvement of terrorists in forest fires, but the human factor does not deny. Dr., the Greenpeace of Russia programs, Ivan Blokov, told Interfax that his organization does not have data that would have suspected al-Qaeda of involvement in fires in the European Union, where forest protection and fire service are better developed than in Russia.

According to a representative of the International Environmental Organization, fires in the European Union, as in Russia, are caused by ignoring people of obvious safety rules.

This is evidenced by the fact that fires occur at automobile highways. The coordinator of the World Wide Fund of WWF by forest policy Nikolai Shmatkov completely agrees with the colleague.

Forest fires

“In Europe, the problem of fire is great every year, especially in Greece and Spain. I have never heard the versions that terrorists act like that. If this is true, then this is some kind of new tactic, ”said Fedor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the Russian Global Policy magazine in global politics.

However, Evgeny Satanovsky believes that al-Qaeda may well stand for arson.

“After the Arab Spring, the flow of illegal migrants, which primarily populate the southern countries - Spain, Italy, and Greece, intensified to Europe. “Europe is literally crowded with Islamists, like a pot of porridge from the fairy tale of the Grimm brothers. These people are not in the wretches with the law, so they can fulfill al-Qaeda contracts, ”Satanovsky said.

And according to meteorologists, abnormal weather is to blame. Forest fires in Europe

The summer of this year has become the hottest for the European Mediterranean over the past 10 years. Due to the Haron anticyclone, which brought Europeans hot air from North Africa, fires began on the territory of the EU. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro were especially affected.

In Spain, 140 thousand hectares of forest died , which led to the death of millions of animals. On the Canary Islands of Tenerife and La Homer, fires lasted several weeks, there the part of the territory included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. And in the Balkans this year, the average daily temperature did not drop below 36 degrees, it was almost completely absent.

The most difficult situation has developed on the adriatic coast of Croatia and Montenegro, where fires not only destroyed unique natural landscapes, but also harmedlocal tourism . Due to numerous fires in different areas of Croatia, many foreign touristsbegan to leave the country, and those who had not yet had time to come, surrendered tickets and refused armor.

At the same time, in Serbia the situation was so complicated that the local authorities had to turn to Russia with a request for help. In response, the Ministry of Emergencies sent a Be-200 hour amphibian plane.

The Italian provinces of Lazio Naples and the Salerno campaign and Greek mastic trees and olive groves also suffered from the fire.