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WASHINGTON —Recent arrests in the United States and in Europe have law enforcement and intelligence agencies on alert, bolstering concerns about a reinvigorated Islamic State terror group bent on lashing out against the West.
FBI officials Wednesday confirmed the bureau shared information with French authorities following last week's arrest of 27-year-old Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, an Afghan national in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on charges connected to a mass shooting plot in the name of the Islamic State group, to coincide with the U.S. election in November.
That information led to the arrest of a 22-year-old Afghan national in the Haute-Garonne region of France, who French officials say is linked to Tawhedi.
That arrest followed the arrests of three other men in the same region, again carried out in coordination with the U.S.
French anti-terrorism prosecutors said Saturday that the suspects, all of whom are said to be followers of the Islamic State, appear to have been involved in a plan to carry out an attack on a football stadium or a shopping center.
"The recent arrests in France and by the FBI's Oklahoma City field office demonstrate the importance of partnerships to detect and disrupt potential terrorist attacks," the FBI said in a statement.
"The FBI's top priority is preventing acts of terrorism, and we are committed to working with our partners both overseas and in the United States to uncover any plots and protect our communities from violence," it said.
The arrests follow repeated warnings from Western counterterrorism officials that the Islamic State, also known as IS or ISIS, has set its sights on launching attacks against the U.S. and Europe. And many have raised specific concerns about the group's Afghan affiliate, known as IS-Khorasan or ISIS-K.
IS-Khorasan "does have the intention to carry out external attacks, including external attacks inside the United States," said U.S. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, speaking during a Washington Post webcast last month.
"We are very concerned about the capacity of ISIS-K to potentially move operatives into the United States," he added.
Others have warned that IS, and IS-Khorasan, have each sought to expand recruiting efforts around the globe.
Some Western officials and regional observers have told VOA that as far back as 2021, the IS Afghan affiliate was seeking to seed Central Asian states such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan with small but highly capable cells and networks that could serve as the basis for future attacks.
Some also have warned that IS-Khorasan has since built on those efforts, increasingly trying to target Afghans and Central Asians living in the West.
"We've seen ISIS-K make a concerted effort to recruit from diaspora communities," said Austin Doctor, the director of counterterrorism research initiatives at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center, or NCITE, speaking with VOA last week following the Oklahoma City arrest.
"It will be another important factor to watch as more information becomes available."
Information from Agence France-Presse was used in this article.