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Swedish security police lowers terror threat level from four to three

Sweden's intelligence service said on Friday it was lowering its terror alert level from "high threat" to "elevated threat", saying the risk of an attack had subsided. Advertisement The Swedish Security Service (Säpo) raised the level in August 2023 to "high threat" ‒ the fourth level on a scale of five ‒ after angry reactions to a series of protests involving desecrations of the Quran made the country a "prioritised target". "Propaganda against Sweden has subsided and Sweden is not specifically mentioned as a target," Fredrik Hallström, head of operations at the Swedish Security Service, told a press conference. "We do not see the same intense flow of attack threats directed at Sweden," he added. Säpo said it now considered the terror alert level to be at "elevated threat" ‒ the third level on its five-point scale. Hallström cautioned that with "an elevated threat, there is room for a terrorist attack to occur". A series of Quran burnings across the country ‒ most notably by Iraqi Christian Salwan Momika ‒ in the summer of 2023 sparked outrage in the Muslim world. It strained relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries, and Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023, starting fires within the compound on the second occasion. Advertisement Momika ended up facing charges of inciting ethnic hatred, but in January of this year he was fatally shot in an apartment just hours before the court was due to deliver its ruling. His co-protester Salwan Najem, also of Iraqi origin, was ultimately found guilty of inciting ethnic hatred during four Quran burnings in 2023. Despite the lowered threat level, Charlotte von Essen, head of Säpo, stressed that "Sweden is in a serious security situation". "The worst in many years," von Essen told reporters. The Säpo chief pointed to the fact that the war in Ukraine was still ongoing. "Foreign powers ‒ and Russia in particular ‒ are carrying out extensive security-threatening activities in and against Sweden," she said.