Iceland is still in shock.
On Thursday, the police announced that they had foiled a plan for a “terrorist” attack targeting state institutions, an unprecedented threat in the peaceful Nordic nation.
Never faced with an attack on its soil, the island of 375,000 souls is waiting to learn more about a project that is confusing criminal experts.
"It's shocking, of course, and surprising," admits Helgi Gunnlaugsson, a specialist in criminal sociology.
"We've had shootings in recent years but it was individual cases and not a group of people with all this weaponry," he notes.
The first of its kind in Iceland, a vast anti-terrorist operation mobilizing around fifty men, including those of the elite Viking Squad unit, led to the arrest on Wednesday of four Icelanders in their twenties in Kópavogur, in the suburbs. of the capital Reykjavík, and Mosfellsbær, a neighboring municipality.
Dozens of firearms, including some semi-automatic and working 3D-printed weapons, were seized in searches at nine different locations, along with thousands of cartridges, police said Thursday during a a press conference.
Terror attacked foiled in Iceland https://t.co/6cAK0tGdRI
— Nordic News (@Nordic_News) September 22, 2022
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"Mass Murders"
Two of those in custody, whom the police considered to be armed and dangerous, have been remanded in custody and will be heard in the coming days.
The other two were released.
According to the authorities, the Icelandic Parliament and the police themselves were among the potential targets in the projects in preparation.
But many gray areas remain, on the profile of the suspects, their motivations and possible complicity in Iceland or abroad.
The suspects are said to have, according to unconfirmed reports from state broadcaster RUV, raised the possibility of committing 'mass murder' at an annual police party scheduled for next week.
The investigators would seek in particular to know if they were able to be inspired by the killer of the extreme right Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik, always according to the RUV.
"It's particularly scary"
The increase in violence with weapons had sparked a national debate in recent months in Iceland, with calls from the police and politicians to beef up staff and resources.
But the confirmation of an advanced plan for an attack would mark the end of an exception for the island with its wild nature and dozens of volcanoes.
“As sad as it is, we can now expect this (the terrorist threat, editor’s note) here in Iceland as elsewhere in the Nordic countries.
It is particularly frightening, ”acknowledged Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir on Thursday evening.
The investigators are working in particular on the trail of possible links with Scandinavian extremist groups.
“We are activating all our international networks, simply because we are confronted with events and projects that go beyond the framework that we have dealt with before”, affirmed Thursday evening Karl Steinar Valsson, a person in charge of international cooperation within the Icelandic police.
Political extremism in the small island nation is relatively low, however.
"We don't have like in Scandinavia or elsewhere in Europe extreme political parties, on the right or on the left, where we have opposition to foreigners or Islam, we have never really had political movements of like this in Iceland," says Helgi Gunnlaugsson.
Despite these recent developments, the authorities still consider the terrorist threat to be reduced and have not raised their level of alert in the country.
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