Iraq has received “credible” intelligence that Islamic State militants plan to launch attacks on subway systems in Paris and the United States, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said yesterday.
Abadi said the information, which he received yesterday, came from militants captured in Iraq. He said he had asked for further details and concluded it appeared credible.
The US and France have both launched air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq in an effort to curb the radical Sunni militant group’s territorial gains.
Information about planned attacks came from militants captured in Iraq
“Today, while I am here, I am receiving accurate reports from Baghdad where there was [the] arrest of [a] few elements and there are networks planning from inside Iraq to have attacks,” Abadi told a small group of US reporters.
The Prime Minister was in New York for the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly.
“They plan to have attacks in the metros of Paris and the US,” he added. “I asked for more credible information. I asked for names. I asked for details, for cities, you know, dates. And from the details I have received, yes, it looks credible.”
Two senior US security officials, contacted by Reuters following the comments from Abadi, said the US had no information to support the threat. Earlier yesterday, France said it would increase security on transport and in public places after a French tourist was killed in Algeria, and said it was ready to support all states that requested its help to fight terror.
Meanwhile French fighter jets struck targets in Iraq yesterday and the US and its allies stepped up air raids in Syria against Islamic State militants who have taken over large areas of both countries.
France’s strikes were its first since September 19 when Paris joined the US military action against Islamic State in Iraq and followed the beheading of a French tourist, reported late on Wednesday, in Algeria in retaliation.
Overnight, US-led air strikes in Syria killed 14 Islamic State fighters, according to a monitoring group. A third night of air raids by the US and its allies targeted Islamic State-controlled oil refineries in three remote locations in eastern Syria to try to cut off a major source of revenue for the al-Qaeda offshoot, US officials said.
Meanwhile later yesterday PA sources reported that the US believes it has identified the British masked man in the videos depicting the beheadings of two American journalists and a British aid worker.
FBI Director James Comey told reporters at the bureau's headquarters he would not reveal the man's name or nationality. Comey did not address whether the US believes the man actually carried out the killings himself. The beheadings are not shown in the videos.
In the three videos, the man – dubbed 'Jihadi John' – speaks with a British accent. He holds a long knife and appears to begin cutting the three men, American reporters James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines.
Last month British Ambassador Peter Westmacott said his country was close to identifying the Islamic State group militant.