Islamic State: EU, Canada, U.S. launch operation to disrupt propaganda apparatus

Authorities in several EU countries, Canada and the U.S. have launched a coordinated operation to disrupt the Islamic State extremist group’s propaganda machine, Europol, which coordinated the action, said on Friday.

The raids, which were carried out on Wednesday and Thursday and lead to the seizure of servers and digital evidence, were targeting the Islamic State’s mouthpiece, the Amaq News Agency, with the aim of disrupting the group’s broadcast of terrorist material.

Operations were carried out in Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Romania, the Netherlands, Britain, Canada and the U.S.

“With this ground-breaking operation we have punched a big hole in the capability of IS to spread propaganda online and radicalise young people in Europe,’’ said Europol Executive Director Rob Wainwright.