The Islamic State has wreaked enough havoc with conventional weapons over the last several months, so the thought that they may also possess a radiological one is chilling to say the least.
According to SITE, Twitter user Muslim-Al-Britani, an alleged weapons maker for the terrorist group, has claimed on the social media site that a “Radioactive Device has entered somewhere in Europe.”
The account has since been suspended.
“Too often, counterterrorism officials plan to prevent replication of the last terror attack,” former Pentagon adviser Michael Rubin said, reports The Washington Free Beacon. “Terror groups, however, plan to shock with something new.”
Islamic State jihadists recently claimed to have built a “dirty bomb” with 40 kg of radioactive uranium that they reportedly stole from Mosul University when militants overtook the city in June.
“O by the way Islamic State does have a Dirty bomb. We found Radioactive material from Mosul university,” the same Twitter user Muslim al-Britani wrote. “We’ll find out what dirty bombs are and what they do. We’ll also discuss what might happen if one actually went off in a public area.”
He added, “This sort of bomb would be terribly destructive if went off in LONDON becuz it would be more of a disruptive than a destructive weapon.”
Iraq informed the U.N. in July about the missing uranium and warned about this very situation.
“Terrorist groups have seized control of nuclear material at the sites that came out of the control of the state," Iraq’s U.N. ambassador wrote in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. “These nuclear materials, despite the limited amounts mentioned, can enable terrorist groups, with the availability of the required expertise, to use it separate or in combination with other materials in its terrorist acts.”
In light of the recent claims, Rubin said Western nations need to be prepared—whether or not Britani’s claims are true.
“Maybe Britani is lying, and maybe he’s not. But Western officials would be foolish to assume that just because something hasn’t happened yet, it won’t,” Rubin told the Free Beacon. “The terrorist groups have the motivation and, thanks to post-withdrawal vacuum created in Iraq, the means to strike the West like never before.”