Part of the answer can be found in a small cottage in the Balkan hinterland, beneath the mountains of central Montenegro. Where do they come from? Who are the middlemen that deal in these deadly weapons? And why have they become so popular again? The Balkan connection
Now law enforcement officers across the continent are trying to establish some basic truths. But it took the scale of death meted out in Paris last month to force Europe to address the threat. The widespread availability of these guns has been known for years. Further afield, in Tunisia and Kenya, it was also automatic weapons that did the damage.
In the 13 November Paris attacks, suicide bombers killed few but gunmen killed many. In the early years after 9/11 the suicide belt, the car bomb and the homemade explosive device were the weapons of choice for jihadis: hidden, brutal and hard to counter.īut as 2015 heaves to a close, its atrocities littered across the calendar – Charlie Hebdo, Sousse, Garissa, Tunis, Copenhagen and Paris – it is the AK-47 that has come to the fore.Īcross Europe more terrorist attacks have been carried out with Kalashnikov-type assault rifles this year than with any other device.
