The Islamic State terror group is preparing "Mumbai-style" attacks to be carried out in Europe by a "special forces-style" group of militants, the chief of the European Union police agency Europol warned Monday.
"The so-called Islamic State [has] developed a new combat style capability to carry out a campaign of large-scale terrorist attacks on a global stage — with a particular focus in Europe," Rob Wainwright told reporters, according to AFP.
Wainwright, who was unveiling the findings of a new Europol report on how ISIS conducts its business, added that "all national authorities are working to prevent that from happening."
ISIS, which claimed responsibility for a series of attacks that left 130 dead in Paris in November, released a new video Sunday showing nine of the extremists who carried out the attacks beheading and shooting captives.
Europol is setting up a new counterterrorism center in The Hague to combat the ISIS threat.
"ISIS is preparing more terrorist attacks, including more ‘Mumbai-style’ attacks, to be executed in member states of the EU, and in France in particular," the Europol report said.
In the 2008 Mumbai attacks, gunmen from the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group killed 166 people.
"The attacks will be primarily directed at soft targets, because of the impact it generates. Both the November Paris attacks and the October 2015 bombing of a Russian airliner suggest a shift in ISIS strategy towards going global," the report said.
Europol said ISIS has developed an "external action command" trained specifically for "special forces-style attacks" internationally.
But the report also downplayed fears that jihadists are among the refugees pouring into Europe.
"There is no concrete evidence that terrorist travelers systematically use the flow of refugees to enter Europe unnoticed," it said.
The report did say though there is evidence that extremist recruiters are targeting refugee centers.