High risk of sabotage against Danish armed forces, intelligence service says

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — A Danish F-16 Fighting Falcon flying over Šiauliai Air Base, Lithuania, Jan. 8, 2018. (NATO photo via Flickr)

COPENHAGEN  -  There is a high risk of sabotage against Denmark's armed forces, Danish Defence Intelligence Service Director Thomas Ahrenkiel said on Friday.

Drone incursions last week prompted the temporary closure of six Danish military and civilian airports, in what Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called a hybrid attack on the nation.

Denmark's intelligence service assesses that Russia is currently waging a hybrid war against the Nordic country as well as against the West, according to Ahrenkiel.

"This means that Russia is using military means, including in an aggressive way, to put pressure on us without crossing the line into armed conflict," Ahrenkiel told reporters.

Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said that there was no direct military threat against Denmark.

 (Reporting by Jacob Gronholt Pedersen and Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje Solsvik // REUTERS)