A report from marine security firm Dryad Maritime has quashed press reports that ISIS might try to attack Mediterranean superyachts
Luxury yacht owners should not let the threat of ISIS terrorist attacks put them off cruising in the Mediterranean, according to a maritime security expert.
A report published in The Sunday Times in February suggested that the Islamic extremist group could attack superyachts, a prospect that has since been reinforced by ISIS propaganda targeting the shipping industry.
In response to this, global yachting association MBYA commissioned Dryad Maritime to look into this possibility and the results are reassuring for boat owners.
The report rates the current risk level as “low” and adds that the chances of a future ISIS attack on a superyacht are “very low”.
ISIS Analysis
Reasons given include a lack of maritime infrastructure within ISIS and their ongoing land campaigns in Libya, which appear to be the main priority.
Even if ISIS were to gain a foothold in Libya and turn its attentions to the Mediterranean, the numerous counter-terrorist groups overseeing this area would likely prove a huge deterrent to any potential raids.
Indeed Dryad’s analysis of the Global Terrorism Database shows that only 199 of the 98,000 terrorist attacks in the past 40 years have been on marine targets.
Terrorist attacks at sea, as opposed to pirate attacks, remain rare – the notable exception being the Tamil Tigers uprising in Sri Lanka, which effectively ended in 2009.
The Dryad Maritime report concludes: “There should be no reason to decide not to operate luxury yachts in the normal sea areas.”
