German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Head Hans-Georg Maassen said that Islamic State militants have Euro 2016 tournament "in their sights though there is no concrete evidence at the moment of an attack being planned," according to Paul Carrel of REUTERS. Maassen's comments "come after France's spy chief said IS militants are gearing up for a campaign of bomb attacks on large crowds in France." France will host Euro 2016, which starts on June 10 and runs for a month at 10 stadiums across the country. Maassen said, "We know that IS has the European Championship in its sights." He added that there was "quite a lot of background noise, an elevated number of indications" that IS, al Qaeda or its Syrian affiliate Nusra Front wanted to perpetrate attacks against Western targets (REUTERS, 5/27). YAHOO's Ollie Knight reported Parisian police have revealed "details of the planned terror attack after extracting data" from Paris bomb attack mastermind Salah Abdeslam's laptop. Abdeslam, 26, is "currently being detained at Europe's largest prison" -- the Fleury-Mérogis Prison in Paris' suburbs. However, "it is feared that despite his detention, his many followers may be seeking retribution for his arrest by carrying out the attack themselves." U.K. security officials "also have concerns that England fans may become targets of an ISIS gun attack while drinking at bars outside the official fan-zone." A senior Whitehall source said, "What they might attempt outside of the secure zones is what worries us most. Bars full of happy, drunk blokes are a very soft target. We are working extremely closely with the French" (YAHOO, 5/30).
