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Coronavirus shouldn’t be dismissed as a tool for biological warfare just yet

From novichok to sarin gas, terrorists have always been interested in bioweapons, writes Kim Sengupta. If this pandemic had been a terrorist plot, it would already be the most effective in history

Tuesday 24 March 2020 18:30 GMT
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A worker disinfects the Maschio Angioino castle museum in Naples, Italy, the worst-affected country in Europe
A worker disinfects the Maschio Angioino castle museum in Naples, Italy, the worst-affected country in Europe

Members were told to take a sensible safety-first approach: stay away from areas with outbreaks of coronavirus, take precautions like regularly washing hands and covering mouths while sneezing or yawning, and avoid crowded places.

The fact that the advice came in an infographic in al-Naba, the newsletter of Isis, was a source of mirth at a grim time. There is, one has to admit, something ghoulishly amusing about a terrorist group warning jihadis of the health risks they face travelling to the “land of epidemic” to blow themselves up.

We do not know what Muhammad Masood, who was arrested in Saint Paul, Minnesota, this week for allegedly trying to join Isis, made of the al-Naba directive. The 28-year-old doctor, with his qualifications from Pakistan, had been previously employed as a research coordinator at a medical clinic in Rochester. He had flown to Amman last month, but then returned to the US because Jordan had closed its borders due to coronavirus. The FBI claims that he had expressed a desire to carry out a “lone wolf” attack in America.

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