Forget the Colts and Packers reaching Super Bowl XLIX - this is the upset of the week:
Belgium’s police HQ was last night under armed guard after anti-terror commandos shot dead two suspected Islamic State jihadis and arrested a third in an eastern town.
Shots and explosions were heard, including machine gun fire, as heavily armed, masked officers moved against the alleged cell in the eastern town of Verviers, which is some seventy miles from Brussels.
‘A second Paris has been avoided,’ an official from Belgium’s ministry of justice was quoted as saying, with reports claiming the jihadis had planned to launch attacks on police in the country.
It comes after an Islamic State video published yesterday showed French-speaking fighters telling Muslims in Europe: ‘If you see a police officer in the street, kill him. Kill them all. Kill all the infidels you see on the street.’
At least the Belgians arm their cops. But it's still a moderately large surprise when any European country thwarts a jihadist attack, much less takes out a jihadist cell. So credit where credit is due on a job well done.
But there are so many more cells and so many more attacks to come. And even if a nation is good at counter-terrorism, all it takes is one getting through the dragnet to cause death and devastation on a massive scale. And the Euros are neither good at counter-terrorism nor particularly motivated, even after last week's massacre in Paris.
And neither are we.
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