The White House announced on Friday that the United States had provided information to Austria to stop an attack that would have targeted concerts by American pop star Taylor Swift.
After the famous American singer’s concerts were canceled this week in the Austrian capital, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, “The United States shared intelligence information with our Austrian partners to help stop a threat to Taylor Swift’s concerts” in Vienna.
Kirby emphasized that the United States is working “closely with partners around the world to monitor and stop threats.”
On Friday, Austrian authorities announced the arrest of a third man they say is a member of ISIS, after revealing a plan to carry out a suicide attack at one of Swift’s concerts in Vienna.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said that “an 18-year-old Iraqi who is close to the main suspect and pledged allegiance to ISIS” was arrested in the Austrian capital on Thursday.
Two other young men, aged 17 and 19, were jailed in this case after they were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of planning to “kill the largest number of people” at one of the three shows planned this week, according to the authorities.
On Thursday, the director of the Austrian Intelligence Agency, Omar Hijawi-Birchner, said that the main suspect holds Austrian citizenship, is originally from North Macedonia, and has been linked to ISIS since the beginning of July “made a full confession and said that he intended to carry out an attack using explosives and a knife.”
The second suspect is from Austria of Turkish and Croatian origin who was “hired a few days ago by a contracting company that was going to provide services in the stadium during the concert.”
