New York City has stepped up its security efforts following a string of terrorist attempts at the hands of Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL)-linked jihadists.
“There’s no doubt we had two terrorist attacks in two months. There’s no doubt that tensions have been heightened,” declared New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week, reports the New York Post.
“This is more than we’ve done before. It’s a response to terrorist activity we’ve never seen before,” he added, referring to security efforts. “What we’ve seen lately is these lone-wolf incidents.”
The preventive measures come as a record number of tourists flock to the city, noted Cuomo.
“We are looking at a number of [security] personnel deployed in the hundreds,” he said.
Cuomo will deploy additional state police, National Guard troops, as well as Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Port Authority cops, all charged with patrolling New York’s busy transit hubs and crossings during the holiday season.
Citing the governor, the Post points out, “The bolstered security will include rapid radiation response trucks, bomb-detecting canines and increased surveillance at all high-profile locations.”
The law enforcement team will ratchet up patrols “at Penn Station, Grand Central terminal, all nine MTA-operated bridges and tunnels and PA Hudson crossings, as well as LaGuardia and JFK airports,” adds the newspaper.
America is currently facing an “elevated threat” posed by terrorists seeking to carry out lone wolf attacks on behalf of ISIS, recently warned the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Despite its dramatic losses in Iraq and Syria, ISIS has been able to retain its online ability to mobilize “lone offenders attacks” against the United States, acknowledged Robin Taylor, a top intelligence official at DHS, earlier this month.
Gov. Cuomo, referring to the beefed up security, told the New York Post, “This is something we’re doing strategically. There is no specific threat. This is all precautionary.”
Akayed Ullah, an ISIS-linked Bangladeshi national who entered the United States via chain migration, attempted to carry out a terrorist attack on the New York City subway system on December 11 with a pipe bomb strapped to his body.
The terrorist was the only one seriously injured in the attack.
The incident marked the second lone-wolf terrorist attack on NYC soil in a six-week period.
On October 31, Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old Uzbek citizen, drove a vehicle into a crowd of Halloween revelers in the city, killing eight people and injuring at least a dozen others in what has been described as the deadliest terrorist attack in New York since 9/11.
“Amid such attacks and attempts, authorities around the world are keeping on high alert,” notes Fox News.
Already during this holiday season, authorities have reportedly prevented terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Russia.
Mark Mitchell, a top Pentagon official, told lawmakers that ISIS is likely to increase its reliance on motivating terrorist attacks via its online presence as it continues to lose on the battlefield.
He also noted that al-Qaeda remains a threat more than 16 years after America’s war on terror began in response to the attacks on September 11, 2001.
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