The Dutch secret service AIVD is to increase the number of spying operations it carries out abroad by carrying out activities on the ground and improving communication surveillance, the head of the organisation Gerard Bouman told Nos tv on Tuesday.

While the threat of domestic Jihadist terrorism has declined, there is a growing threat from abroad, making the new strategy necessary, Bouwman said.
Radical Muslims from Europe are moving to conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq and Yemen to learn terrorist skills, he said.
One example of this is the Nigerian national who attempted to blow up a US plan en route from Amsterdam to Detroit in December, he said. And three of the four young Muslims from The Hague arrested in Kenya last summer had plans to become Jihadists, the AIVD leader said.
The AIVD came under fire in a recent report into the Dutch role in the Iraq war for relying too heavily on intelligence information from other security services.