Supporters of the Islamic State rushed to celebrate Saturday night’s powerful explosion in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood that injured at least 29 people, even as no group or individual has been arrested or claimed responsibility.
“The lions of the Caliphate roar in New York, we cause you pain inside your house, the carrier of the Cross,” wrote one Twitter user who went by the name “I am ISIS, come and block me.” The account was soon suspended. Another, called “The Lone Wolves,” tweeted with the Arabic hashtag #ExplosionManhattanNewYork “Oh God burn America, take revenge in the name of your oppressed slaves and believers’ blood.”
Others tweeted about “good tidings that keep coming” from New York, and one user affiliated with al-Qaeda in Syria tweeted: “Oh God go against America, the head of infidels. Oh God, count them and kill them one by one, and do not spare anyone of them.”
The hashtag #ExplosionManhattanNewYork was popular among other Arab users, mostly from Saudi Arabia, who don’t seem to be affiliated with terror groups but still criticized America, Vocativ found. One user said “ISIS is an American product, their goods come back to them.” Another wrote: “This is all your doing Mister Obama, you are the reason for the spread of ISIS in the region. I wish you would listen to the words of King Abdallah and his warning for the Arabs from ISIS.”
Others raised concerns, tweeted that the explosion was “another pretext for America to intervene in another country” and that ‘the dog Trump will blame the Muslims in order to win the elections, an expected scenario”.
A 911 caller warned of further explosions right after the blast that rocked Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and injured 29 people, The Post has learned.
“I’m looking at the explosion down the block. There will be more,” the unidentified male said, claiming to be standing at 23rd Street and Seventh Avenue in the aftermath...
A 911 caller warned of further explosions right after the blast that rocked Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and injured 29 people, The Post has learned.
Cops were interviewing two men who claim to have spotted a potential person of interest in the case, sources said.
The witnesses were dining at the Krush bar and grill on 32nd Street about a half-hour before the 8:30 p.m. Saturday explosion when they saw an Arab-looking man who was carrying a suitcase and appeared out of place, sources said
A man who wounded up to nine people in a knife attack at a mall in central Minnesota before he was shot dead by an off-duty police officer is a "soldier of the Islamic State," the militant group's news agency said on Sunday.
The man, who was wearing a private security uniform, made references to Allah and asked at least one person if they were Muslim before he assaulted them at the Crossroads Center mall in St. Cloud on Saturday, the city's Police Chief William Blair Anderson told reporters.
"Whether that was a terrorist attack or not, I'm not willing to say that right now because we just don't know," Anderson said at a news conference.
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Anderson said eight or nine people were wounded in the attack. Authorities had said earlier there were eight victims but one injured person transported himself to a hospital and was not initially counted, Anderson said.
Amaq, the news agency affiliated with the Middle Eastern extremist group Islamic State, issued a statement on Sunday saying, "The executor of the stabbing attacks in Minnesota yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls to target the citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition."
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the Amaq claim.
Kyle Loven, a spokesman for the FBI regional office in Minnesota, said the agency was aware of the claim of responsibility and was working with local police in the investigation. A representative of the U.S. National Security Council also said it was aware of the claim but deferred to local investigators.
The knife attack in St. Cloud, a community about 60 miles (100 km) northwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul, came at a time of heightened concern in the United States about the threat of violence in public places.
No comments:
Post a Comment