The ISIS militant group released a video on Tuesday suggesting it may carry out further attacks in the West, naming London, Berlin and Rome as possible targets.
The ISIS militant group released a video on Tuesday suggesting it may carry out further attacks in the West, naming London, Berlin and Rome as possible targets.
“If it was Paris yesterday, and today Brussels, Allah knows where it will be tomorrow. Maybe it will be in London or Berlin or Rome,” said a member of the group in English on the video which showed footage of the aftermath of previous attacks.
Meanwhile, ISIS has mounted a deadly gas attack against Syrian troops at a besieged eastern airbase, state news agency SANA said, the latest report of the jihadists’ use of chemical weapons.
SANA did not say precisely how many soldiers had been killed in the attack on the government-controlled airbase outside the divided eastern city of Deir Ezzor.
“Daesh (ISIS) terrorists attacked Deir Ezzor military airport with rockets carrying mustard gas, causing some people to suffocate,” it reported late on Monday.
It is the latest in a string of suspected mustard gas attacks by the jihadists in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
On March 9, a suspected ISIS gas attack on the Iraqi town of Taza, south of Kirkuk, killed three children and wounded some 1,500 people, with injuries ranging from burns to rashes and respiratory problems.
While the chemical agents allegedly used by ISIS so far have been among their least effective weapons, the psychological impact on civilians is considerable.
A total of 25,000 people fled their homes in and around Taza in March, fearing another attack.
ISIS has been battling to capture Deir Ezzor airbase since 2014.
It provides the only supply route other than air drops to the government-held sector of the city, where more than 200,000 civilians are living under ISIS siege.
On Monday, an ISIS bombardment of two government-held districts of the city killed seven civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
ISIS now claims to have opened a “police forensics department” with a pictorial report issued by the terror group showing equipment and its “detectives” solving a “burglary” at a pharmacy in Iraq.
The extremist group announced it had acquired microscopes and magnifying glasses and was in the process of recruiting forensics-minded foreign fighters, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which monitors jihadi communications. The terror group through a picture essay showed it has opened an “Islamic State police forensics department” in al Furat province, Iraq.
The photo gallery showed crime scene investigators collecting and analysing fingerprints.
Also shown are various Crime Scene Investigation gear, such as a microscope and special lighted fingerprint analysis table.
Another shot is of a magnifying glass highlighting a dusted fingerprint at a burgled pharmacy and a technician comparing collected prints to a suspect’s, the Washington Times reported. Finally, in some more propaganda, there is a picture of an agent handing reimbursement money to the pharmacy owner.
Steve Stalinsky, MEMRI’s executive director, said the ISIS is trying to show the world that towns in its so-called Muslim caliphate in Syria-Iraq function like modern municipalities.
“The launch of its ‘Islamic police forensics department’ is only one part of the group’s efforts to show the world that, like any other state, it has a modern and advanced police department, while at the same sending a direct message to its opponents,” he was quoted as sayng.
