EU and US police forces have crippled the main mouthpieces of the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) in a co-ordinated transatlantic takedown across several countries, Europol said Friday (April 27th).
"With this ground-breaking operation we have punched a big hole in the capability of ISIS to spread propaganda online and radicalise young people in Europe," the head of Europol Rob Wainwright said.
The two-day operation on Wednesday and Thursday was the latest stage of a campaign first launched in 2015, and targeted in particular the Amaq news agency used by ISIS to broadcast claims of attacks and spread its extremist message, AFP reported.
"With this takedown action, targeting major ISIS-branded media outlets like Amaq, but also al-Bayan radio, Halumu and Nashir news, ISIS's capability to broadcast and publicise terrorist material has been compromised," Europol said.
The "simultaneous multinational takedown" was co-ordinated via Europol's headquarters in The Hague with the support of Eurojust, the EU agency for judicial co-operation in criminal matters.
It was led by the Belgian federal prosecutor, while national police forces seized servers in the Netherlands, Canada and the US as well as digital material in Bulgaria, France and Romania.
Britain's Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit also was involved in identifying "top-level domain registrars abused by ISIS", Europol said.
Europol began warning about the rise of Amaq in late 2015.
"Since then law enforcement agencies have, in a continuous joint effort, taken down the web assets of the media outlet," it said.
