Major terror plot broken up in The Netherlands.

Police investigate the house of one of the suspects. AFP. 

A major terror plot in The Netherlands has been broken up. AFP. Seven men were arrested and have been accused of plotting to attack a public event with AK-47's, a car bomb, and explosive belts. The ringleader was a 34 year old Iraqi man who had been convicted of trying to join ISIS in 2017. The men were still trying to secure explosives and other weapons but they did have small arms. Though the plot has been broken up, The Netherlands remain on high alert. 

My Comment:

Big news out of Europe which is being overshadowed by the Supreme Court drama in the United States. This had the potential to be a horrible attack. With seven attackers they could have killed dozens of people. 

Indeed, this looks like it was a major and complex plot. By using both suicide bombers, gunmen and a car bomb they could have caused quite a bit of chaos. Indeed, this attack plan sounds similar to the Paris attacks. If they had hit separate targets they could have hindered law enforcement response. And if they hit the same target they could have ensured that they inflicted huge casualties. 

That complexity is probably what brought them down. My guess is that there is a good chance that their efforts to get arms and explosives were what exposed them to the authorities. Guns and explosives aren't that hard to get into Europe but authorities tend to monitor the black market fairly closely. 

My guess is that these men probably would have had more luck with a vehicle ramming attack. Those attacks are a lot easier to pull off even though they don't have quite the same impact or casualties as a combined arms terror attack would. Still, some kind of mass ramming attack with seven different people could be a next level terror attack. And with so many attackers there is a decent chance of one or two of them getting away and attacking again. 

Unlike most terror plots lately, I do think that there is a chance that there is a connection to a larger terrorist groups. The ringleader was already arrested for trying to join ISIS so at the very least he had the contacts to attempt that. My guess is that with the obvious attempt to buy arms and explosives they probably had some links to ISIS. With ISIS bankrupt and a shell of its former self, I don't think they probably couldn't have done much, but I bet the link is there. 

I do have to wonder why the ringleader was even in The Netherlands. If he was from Iraq originally and had tried to join ISIS and even been convicted for it, why not deport him? Why was he out of prison? Was he out on bail? Didn't they think he was a threat? Or was he being followed in an attempt to break up this cell? I don't have any answers to any of those questions...