Country Report on Terrorism 2024 - Chapter 1 - Sweden

Country Overview:  Sweden reported that the terrorist threat decreased in 2024.  Lone actors and small cells posed the primary threats, consisting of like-minded individuals connecting online, often without ties to formal terrorist organizations.  The involvement of minors in terrorism continued, with criminal networks recruiting and paying them to conduct unsuccessful attacks on assigned targets.  On January 30, the Swedish government introduced its national strategy against terrorism, which integrated preventive measures into broader crime-prevention efforts.

Sweden amended laws under the Aliens Act to prevent terrorists from misusing immigration status, giving authorities more power to detain and remove individuals posing security threats. On January 1, police were granted authority to conduct body searches.  In March, Swedish authorities were granted the authority to revoke immigration privileges if someone was deemed a security risk.  Sweden reports that at least 140 suspected Swedish FTFs remain in Iraq and Syria.

In 2024, Swedish authorities worked closely with the FBI to build criminal cases against Swedish FTFs.  However, Sweden did not facilitate the return of Swedish national FTFs from Iraq or Syria, citing security concerns.  Sweden has unilaterally prolonged temporary border controls until May 2025, citing a serious threat to public order.  On January 1, Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority was granted the power to impose interim asset freezes and to review banking-sector operations related to terrorism financing.

2024 Terrorism Trends:  Swedish authorities investigated several incidents as suspected terrorist acts.  Israeli Embassy staff found a live hand grenade near the embassy in Stockholm in January, and in May and October, assailants fired shots at the Israeli Embassy. On June 4, three men planted explosives outside the Israeli military technology firm Elbit in Gothenburg, and on October 10, a teenager fired shots at the company.  Media reports suggested Iran hired organized crime groups to target Israeli and Jewish entities, which Swedish police deemed plausible.  On October 7, Swedish citizen Lina Laina Ishaq stood trial for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes for enslaving Yazidi women and children in Syria between 2014 and 2016.  This marked the first Swedish court address of ISIS’s atrocities against Yazidis.  On November 27, a Syrian man in Stockholm was sentenced to one year in prison for financing terrorist activities in Syria, supporting al-Qa’ida and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham through cryptocurrency.