ISIS has released a list of churches in their sights this holiday season.
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They’ve published the names and addresses of thousand of churches in the U.S. and called on its adherents and “lone wolves” to attack them during the holiday season, according to a message posted in the group’s “Secrets of Jihadis” social media group.
A user by the name “Abu Marya al-Iraqu” posed an Arabic-language message calling for “bloody celebrations in the Christian New Year” and announced the group’s plans to use its network of lone wolves to “turn the Christian New Year into a bloody horror movie,” Voactiv is reporting.
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While we haven’t been able to find the list of churches, it was apparently posted on the social media group “Telegram,” a seemingly fool-proof app that allows users to remain secret. It provides manuals for the use and preparation of weapons and bombs. The list contained churches across all 50 states.
In another group post, a member summoned “the sons of Islam” to target “churches, well-known hotels, crowded coffee shops, streets, markets and public places,” and shared a list of addresses in the United States, as well as in Canada, France and the Netherlands.
ISIS already claimed responsibility for the Christmas market attack in Berlin that killed 12 people and injured another 48. ISIS said the assailant was a “soldier of the Islamic State” who followed organizational orders to “target coalition countries.” He was identified as Anis Amir, a Tunisian man in his 20s who had Salifi and Jihadi connections in Tunisia and Germany.
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ISIS has published similar lists, including a “kill” list of more than 8,000 police officers in the United States. That list – released in June – resulted in no known attacks.
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