The New York City Subway IS safe: De Blasio holds press conference to insist that there is no terror threat after Iraqi PM's claims that ISIS will launch strike

  • Mayor de Blasio: 'I have a simple message: There is no threat to our subway'
  • Increased resources toward travel network and more police on the streets
  • Haider al-Abadi claimed Iraqi intelligence officials uncovered a terror plot
  • Said U.S. and French nationals are being trained to attack home countries 
  • Abadi said intelligence was credible but was 'not sure' if attack is imminent
  • But America's National Security Council quickly knocked down the claims
  • Spokesperson said there is no evidence to suggest information is accurate
  • FBI Director James Comey told reporters that he hadn't heard of the plot

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has spoken out against claims that ISIS is planning to attack the subway saying there is 'no credible threat.' 

After taking the subway to a news conference this afternoon, he said: 'I have a simple message for our New Yorkers: There is no threat to our subway system.'

New York Police Commissioner Bratton said the NYPD has put increased resources toward protecting subways and rail stations and there will be more police patrols on the streets, but insisted the people of the city should feel 'comfortable and secure' using the travel network.

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New York officials have spoken out against claims that ISIS is planning to attack the subway saying there is 'no credible threat.' Pictured George Venizelos, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, (left)  New York Field Office, New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton (centre) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (right)

New York officials have spoken out against claims that ISIS is planning to attack the subway saying there is 'no credible threat.' Pictured George Venizelos, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, (left)  New York Field Office, New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton (centre) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (right)

 Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news conference this afternoon: 'I have a simple message for our New Yorkers -  there is no threat to our subway system' 

 Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news conference this afternoon: 'I have a simple message for our New Yorkers -  there is no threat to our subway system' 

Enhanced security: More officers including sniffer dogs were deployed to the subway 

Enhanced security: More officers including sniffer dogs were deployed to the subway 

Reassurances: New York governor Andrew Cuomo reassured commuters the subway was same from a platform

Reassurances: New York governor Andrew Cuomo reassured commuters the subway was same from a platform

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (left) and New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton arrive at the press conference after taking the subway. New York Police Commissioner Bratton said the NYPD has put increased resources toward protecting subways and rail stations and there will be more police patrols

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (left) and New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton arrive at the press conference after taking the subway. New York Police Commissioner Bratton said the NYPD has put increased resources toward protecting subways and rail stations and there will be more police patrols

They were responding to claims by the Iraqi Prime Minister this morning that ISIS militants are planning to carry out terror attacks on the New York and Paris subways.  

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi today claimed to have received 'credible' information from intelligence officials in Baghdad that foreign fighters belonging to ISIS were plotting attacks. 

National Security Council spokesman Caitlin Hayden said:  'We have not confirmed such a plot, and would have to review any information from our Iraqi partners before making further determinations We take any threat seriously and always work to corroborate information we receive from our partners.'

Mr Abadi made his remarks at a meeting with journalists on the sidelines of a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York today.

He said that the suspects included Islamic extremists originally from the United States and France who have been fighting alongside ISIS terrorists in Iraq.

Threat: Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said he was told of the plot by intelligence officials in Baghdad, and that it was the work of extremists originally from the U.S. and France who have been fighting for ISIS

Threat: Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said he was told of the plot by intelligence officials in Baghdad, and that it was the work of extremists originally from the U.S. and France who have been fighting for ISIS

Radicals: ISIS supporters  carry the group's flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, Iraq. A mother living there has described the pall of fear that hangs over the city

Radicals: ISIS supporters slogans as they carry the group's flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, Iraq. Militants in the country are suspected of plotting the New York and Paris attacks

'Today, while I am here, I am receiving accurate reports from Baghdad where there was [the] arrest of [a] few elements and there are networks planning from inside Iraq to have attacks,' he said.

'They plan to have attacks in the metros of Paris and the U.S.,' he added, speaking in English. 'From the details I have received, yes it looks credible.'

'They are not Iraqis. Some of them are French, some of them are Americans. But they are in Iraq,' Mr Abadi went on to say.

His claims were quickly slapped down by U.S. officials, however.

'We've seen the reports of Prime Minister Abadi's comments. We have not confirmed such a plot, and would have to review any information from our Iraqi partners before making further determinations,' said Caitlin Hayden, spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council.

'We take any threat seriously and always work to corroborate information we receive from our partners. We're obviously very focused on the issue of foreign fighters, as you saw evidenced yesterday at the Security Council session the President chaired, she added. 

Force: A handout picture made available by the US Department of Defense today shows a formation of US Navy F-18E Super Hornets refueling having carried out airstrikes on targets linked to ISIS

Force: A handout picture made available by the US Department of Defense today shows a formation of US Navy F-18E Super Hornets refueling having carried out airstrikes on targets linked to ISIS

Francois Hollande
Barack Obama

Allies: Last Friday French President Francois Hollande (left) ordered his country's air force to carry out attacks on ISIS targets in Iraq. In doing so, France joined a 'broad coalition' of nations agreeing to support plans by U.S. president Barack Obama (right) to 'degrade and eventually destroy' the terrorist group

Strikes: A U.S.-led coalition opened airstrikes inside Syria on Monday, expanding weeks of attacks by the United States on Islamic State targets in Iraq

Strikes: A U.S.-led coalition opened airstrikes inside Syria on Monday, expanding weeks of attacks by the United States on Islamic State targets in Iraq

The Iraqi Prime Minister said that he received the information from intelligence officials based in Baghdad earlier this morning. 

In addition to the brutality Islamic State has visited on the people of Iraq and Syria, western leaders have voiced concern that the group would turn its terror operations outside the region.

A U.S.-led coalition opened airstrikes inside Syria on Monday, expanding weeks of attacks by the United States on Islamic State targets in Iraq. 

A fresh wave of airstrikes from the United States and its Arab allies hit ISIS oil refineries overnight, killing at least 14 militants and striking at the heart of the terror group's funding.

ISIS generates up to $2million a day from the sale of oil, employing highly trained engineers to extract thousands of barrels a day from the vast swaths of Syria and Iraq under the terror group's control.

BEHEADED FRENCH HOSTAGE WILL BE AVENGED, COUNTRY VOWS AS TRIBUTES PAID TO MARRIED FATHER OF TWO 

Thousands of Algerian soldiers supported by helicopters are hunting for the ISIS-linked Islamist terrorists who beheaded a French mountaineer in a sickening video released yesterday.

Herve Gourdel, 55, was captured by the Islamist group Jund al-Khilifa while hiking in the Djurdjura National Park on Sunday - just one day after he arrived in Algeria for a 10-day walking holiday.

Mr Gourdel was brutally murdered yesterday, less than 24 hours after militants uploaded a video to YouTube warning that the married father-of-two would be killed unless France pulled out of a coalition of nations bombing targets connected to the ISIS in Iraq.

Murdered: Herve Gourdel, 55, (pictured right, holding a water bottle) was captured by the Islamist group Jund al-Khilifa while hiking in the Djurdjura National Park on Sunday - just one day after arriving for a walking holiday

Murdered: Herve Gourdel, 55, (pictured right, holding a water bottle) was captured by the Islamist group Jund al-Khilifa while hiking in the Djurdjura National Park on Sunday - just one day after arriving for a walking holiday

Execution: ISIS-linked militants in Algeria beheaded  Herve Gourdel yesterday after he was captured at the weekend. The group earlier made threats to kill Mr Gourdel if France did not stop bombing targets in Iraq

Execution: ISIS-linked militants in Algeria beheaded Herve Gourdel yesterday after he was captured at the weekend. The group earlier made threats to kill Mr Gourdel if France did not stop bombing targets in Iraq

By early this morning some 2000 soldiers were involved in the search in the Tizi Ouzou region, along with 500 marines supported by sniffers dogs. 'Everything will be done to bring the killers to justice,' said a spokesman for Algeria's Defence Ministry.

The news came as France's defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian revealed his country is considering whether to expand airstrikes into Syria to assist a U.S. and Arab coalition in thwarting ISIS' advances.

There are 30,000 French citizens living in Algeria, where Mr Gourdel was brutally murdered yesterday by militants loyal to ISIS - the terror group led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi which controls a swath of territory larger than Britain and a population of four million brutally oppressed citizens.

Asked about the French citizens living in Algeria, Mr Le Drian told RTL radio that the goal of the extremist groups is to 'spread terror.

Herve Gourdel
Herve Gourdel

Experienced: Mr Gourdel was a professional mountaineering guide and amateur photographer. Although he enjoyed spending time in remote locations around the world, he was always extremely careful, friends said

Grieving: This morning tributes were paid to murdered professional mountaineering guide Herve Gourdel by locals in his home city of Nice, where a book of condolence was opened in his memory

Grieving: This morning tributes were paid to murdered professional mountaineering guide Herve Gourdel by locals in his home city of Nice, where a book of condolence was opened in his memory

The Algerian government last night reiterated its commitment to protecting foreign residents living inside the country.

There are fears that other radical Islamist groups may carry out copycat attacks on Westerners following calls to do so by ISIS on Sunday.

The kidnapping and murder of Gourdel, however, is believed to be a crime of opportunity, since Algeria's extremist have been confined to remote mountainous regions and the French mountaineer was one of only a very few foreigners to venture into this area.

This morning tributes were paid to the professional mountaineering guide, both from politicians and from locals in his home city of Nice, where a book of condolence was opened in his memory.

Mr Gourdel - a passionate amateur photographer - was a married father of two adult children.