Collapse of ISIL may lead to attacks on EU, officials warn

Gilles de Kerchove, EU Counter-Terrorism Co-ordinator, has said that IS will likely seek to ‘reassert itself’ by encouraging existing cells or individuals to carry out attacks. The warnings came as Julian King, the EU's security commissioner, told German daily Die Welt that the recapture of the city of Mosul, the northern Iraqi stronghold of IS, could lead to dangerous IS fighters returning to Europe.’ De Kerchove cautioned that Europe would struggle to ‘digest’ the 1,500 and 2,000 ‘foreign fighters’ who might return to Europe if IS was driven out of its strongholds in Mosul and Raqqa. He maintained that the number could also include the families of European jihadists and radicalised children who had grown up under IS control. De Kerchove’s concerns were shared by Richard Walton, Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism command, said: “IS have known for some time that this offensive in Mosul was going to happen and obviously an offensive in Raqqa will follow and there will be a 'Raqqa scatter' of foreign fighters back to their home countries.” "It's highly likely that IS would have dispatched foreign fighters back to their homelands in anticipation of them losing their physical caliphate."