'I am really afraid now': Violent attacks rattle European nerves

The attackers have used knives, a gun, a bomb, an axe and even a truck travelling at high speeds.

The victims were at a shopping mall, on a train, at a bar enjoying a drink with friends or at a church.

And it's happening, it seems, on a near-daily basis.

Europeans are on edge after six violent attacks in France and Germany over the past two weeks.

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"I am really afraid now," said Claudia Frosch, who witnessed an explosion that injured 15 outside a wine bar in Ansbach, Germany, on Sunday night. "I am not going out anywhere anymore." 

ISIS has claimed responsibility for three of the incidents, while others appear to have no link to any group or ideology other than the wish to kill and maim.

The attacks included:

• A man driving a truck through a crowd watching fireworks on Bastille Day in Nice, killing 84 and wounding at least 300. ISIS claimed responsibility. (July 13)
• A teenage asylum seeker from Afghanistan wounding five people in an axe attack on board a regional train in Wurzburg, in southern Germany. (July 18)
• A dual German-Iranian teenager killing nine people in a shooting at a McDonald's and a shopping centre in Munich. (July 22)
• A Syrian refugee killing a Polish woman with a machete in the southern German city of Reutlingen, in what police describe as a "crime of passion." (July 24)
• A failed Syrian asylum seeker detonating a bomb in his backpack in the patio of a wine bar, killing himself and injuring 15 others, at a music festival in the southern German city of Ansbach. (July 24) ISIS claimed responsibility.
• Two men slitting the throat of an elderly priest as he was saying mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in the Normandy region of France. (July 26) ISIS claimed responsibility.

Some are acts of violence carried out by troubled individuals. Even in those attacks where ISIS claims its "soldiers" carried out the violence, it's been difficult to prove a direct link to the jihadist group in terms of training or planning.

And none of the recent incidents bears the hallmark of the two well-planned, orchestrated attacks carried out by ISIS members in Europe: the attacks on Paris last fall that killed 130 and the blasts in Brussels in March that left 32 dead.

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The attacks in Germany have taken place in Bavaria, where residents expressed shock because of the numbers of police who are stationed in the region. 

"I could understand if these attacks would happen in Cologne, where there are not enough police officers," said Luger, a taxi driver who only gave his first name, in Ansbach. "But we have so many police here, it's surprising."

Bavaria is home to many of the one million refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan who have settled in Germany over the last year. It's also where anti-refugee sentiment is the most vocal in the country.

"I go out onto the streets and I look at these [refugees] different now," said Ansbach resident Juliane Eidam. "You follow them with your eyes. I am more afraid of them now."

That is exactly what ISIS wants to hear from Europeans.

The jihadist group has lost about 40 per cent of the territory it controlled in Iraq and 10 to 20 per cent of the land it has seized in Syria, according to the U.S. military.

'Wounded animal'

Given those losses, the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is now just as focused on spreading its brand of brutal terror to Europe and North Africa.

"We should see ISIS as a wounded animal," said Adam Deen, a researcher at the counterterrorism think-tank, the Quilliam Foundation. 

"[Their] tactic is now to trigger, let's say self-starters if you like, to create this kind of presence that they're still here and alive and kicking and causing havoc," Deen told CBC News.

Still, European countries continue to be vulnerable to the attacks carried out by supporters of ISIS.

Within the European Union, a common intelligence sharing system is lacking. Within many countries, there are communication gaps between various security agencies and government ministries.

"In the face of this threat that has never been greater in France and in Europe, the government is demonstrating an absolute determination in the fight against terrorism," said French President François Hollande, who also said that ISIS has "declared war" on his country.

But by failing to stop the violence, European residents are increasingly turning their anger toward their leaders.

In Nice recently, residents shouted "resign, resign" at the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls when he visited the city following the truck attack.

• Nice attack investigation reveals attacker led multiple lives
• Attack in Nice: why is France targeted?

Within the European Union, there remain significant divisions on how to deal with the jihadist threat, which ISIS continues to exploit as it urges its followers to continue to carry out attacks in Europe.