The organization published the threats against the countries over the weekend via a statement in its official media channel, reports Danish Berlingske. Among other things, al-Qaeda writes that “Denmark and Sweden are two small, despicable countries”, and calls on Muslims to commit “revenge” after the recent Koran burnings.
The Swedish terror researcher Hans Brun, active at King’s College in London, confirms that al-Qaeda has directed threats against Sweden.
– The threats came yesterday from what functions as al-Qaeda’s media center, al-Sahab. This is not really anything new, but another call to people around the world to exact revenge, and it is directed at lone actors, he says.
“Does not affect significantly”
Hans Brun describes the statement as an “illustration of how serious the situation is”, but does not judge that the threats themselves significantly affect the security situation in Sweden.
– There is already a proper threat image against Sweden from several actors in the Middle East, so these in particular probably do not affect too much. Compared to previous threats from al-Qaeda, this is aimed more at the collective, instead of at individuals such as Lars Vilks.
– You can see this as a call to people to take action. If this was something they had organized themselves, they wouldn’t have gone out in advance like this. It must also be remembered that al-Qaeda is now greatly weakened.
Outside Sweden’s borders
Hans Brun assesses that the threats can have a greater effect outside Sweden’s borders.
– Those who are above all exposed to this are Danish and Swedish diplomats in the Middle East. But at the same time, they have a habit of operating under difficult conditions, says Hans Brun.
TT has contacted Säpo, who was unable to provide a comment on Monday evening.