Finnish security services say they are investigating a suspected Finnish female jihadist who has posed with weapons and published threats against Shia Muslims on the social media website Facebook.
The photo uploaded to Facebook shows a burqa-clad figure posing with an assault rifle and brandishing what they claim is a suicide bomb device.
A comment on the page - written in Finnish - says the woman has come to Syria because “there are lots of Shias to kill.”
A spokesman for the security services Supo said the woman is known to them, but said they are not taking a concrete position on the written comments.
“The incident in question was known to us. How we respond is to be decided among the authorities, and it will be an internal issue. There is no intention of making our decision public,” Jyri Rantala from Supo said.
He refused to comment on whether and to what extent the online postings amount to a criminal act.
Rantala said that around 200 individuals in Finland are seen as at risk of radicalisation, a number which has increased in recent years. Authorities are monitoring their activities more closely than those of other citizens.
According to Supo the terrorist threat level has increased in Finland because of the increasing number of people with ties to the events in Syria.
“In Syria a central aspect of conflict is the division between Sunni and Shia Muslims. Therefore it is of course possible that the Syrian situation has a ripple effect back here in Finland too,” Rantala said.