The Austrian government has ordered the closure of two mosques in the capital, Vienna, following the arrival of an attacker who shot dead four people this week.
The worst attack in a decade took place in Austria on November 3, according to the AFP news agency, when one of the attackers was killed by police, identified as 20-year-old Kojtum Fizzolai.
Austrian Minister Susan Robb told a news conference that the government office for religious affairs had been "informed by the Interior Ministry that the November 3 bomber had been visiting mosques in Vienna several times since his release."
The Melat Ibrahim Mosque and the Tawheed Mosque, respectively, are located in the Ottakrang and Medling districts of western Vienna.
Susan Robb said the local intelligence agency, BVT, "told us that visits to these mosques had led to an increase in extremism among the attackers."
He said that one of the mosques is regularly registered.
The Salaam Religious Community of Austria said in a statement that a registered mosque was being closed because it violated religious beliefs and the rules of its constitution, as well as national laws governing Islamic institutions.
The Vienna Prosecutor's Office said in a statement that six of the 16 people arrested after the attack had been released, while the other suspects remained in custody and an investigation into the attacker's whereabouts was under way.
According to the report, the dead attacker was a dual citizen of Austria and Macedonia, and had previously been convicted of trying to join ISIS in Syria.
The Austrian government has admitted to making "unbearable mistakes" in intelligence reports about the attackers, saying it could be considered a major threat and could be closely monitored.
The head of the Vienna Provincial Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (LVT), Vienna's largest intelligence agency, is temporarily resigning, Interior Minister Carol Neymar told a news conference. Is also being done.
"We have made unbearable mistakes,"
Austria has already admitted that it had received intelligence from Slovakia that a 20-year-old gunman had tried to buy ammunition there.
Vienna's police chief, Gehard Pahurstel, said German intelligence agencies were monitoring people in Germany who had lived in Austria over the summer and met with the attacker.
"Combining these facts with information from Slovakia could lead to different conclusions about the danger of suspects,"
The police chief said that all these assessments should have ensured better measures.
It may be recalled that on November 3, in the central part of the Austrian capital Vienna, gunmen opened fire at 6 different places, as a result of which 4 people, including a woman, were killed and 17 were injured.
One of the two gunmen was reportedly shot dead by police, while another escaped.
The Austrian interior minister had expressed suspicion that one of the attackers was a supporter of ISIS, aimed at weakening and dividing Austrian democratic society.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Chris called the attack "hate terrorism."
