ISIS warned in a new video on Monday that countries taking part in air strikes against Syria would suffer the same fate as France, and threatened to attack in Washington.
ISIS warned in a new video on Monday that countries taking part in air strikes against Syria would suffer the same fate as France, and threatened to attack in Washington.
The video, which appea-red on a site used by ISIS to post its messages, begins with news footage of the aftermath of Friday’s Paris shootings in which at least 129 people were killed. The message to countries inv-olved in what it called the “crusader campaign” was delivered by a man dressed in fatigues and a turban, and identified in subtitles as Al Ghareeb the Algerian.
“We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France’s and by God, as we struck France in the centre of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington,” the man said. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the video, which purports to be the work of ISIS fighters in the Iraqi province of Salahud-dine, north of Baghdad.
The French government has called the Paris attacks an act of war and said it would not end its airstrikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. French fighter jets launched their biggest raids in Syria to date on Sunday targeting the ISIS’s stronghold in the city of Raqqa. The operation was carried out in coordination with US forces.
The police raided homes of suspected Islamist militants across France overnight following the Paris attacks. “Al Ghareeb the Algerian” also warned Europe in the video that more attacks were coming. “I say to the European countries that we are coming, coming with booby traps and explosives, coming with explosive belts and (gun) silencers and you will be unable to stop us because today we are much stronger than before,” he said.
Apparently referring to international talks to end the Syrian war, another man identified in the video as Al Karrar the Iraqi tells French President Francois Hollande “we have decided to negotiate with you in the trenches and not in the hotels.”
Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Monday that authorities believe new terror attacks are being planned in France and in other European countries following the carnage in Paris.
“We know that operations were being prepared and are still being prepared, not only against France but other European countries too,” he said. France would be living with the threat of terror attacks “for a long time”, he said.
Mr Valls said he was struck by the fact that young people had been targeted in Friday’s attacks on a concert hall, bars and restaurants and outside the Stade de France stadium that left 129 people dead. “Once again the terrorists have attacked France, the French people, young people. Many young people are dead,” he said.
