Austrian authorities announced the arrest of two people on August 7 for planning attacks on large events around Vienna, including Taylor Swift concerts. The suspects, a 19-year-old who was known to security services and a 17-year-old, are Austrian citizens believed to have been radicalised by extremist Islamist propaganda from Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda.
These foiled plans were followed by a knife attack in the west German city of Solingen on August 23 that killed three people and wounded eight others. IS claimed responsibility for the attack the following day.
To understand the message that IS intended to send through these attacks, we must consider how the group operated both at its peak and after its 2019 defeat, when the final stretch of the group’s territory was liberated in Baghuz, Syria.
