ISIS threaten attacks on London
Abu Aman Al Kinyi and Abu Abdulla Britani have made direct threats against London and specifically the Covent Garden area, in their latest round of twitter posts.
“Brothers and Sisters if you are in Europe stay away from police stations or government buildings,” warns one tweet by an individual who also claims that he has, “Done Recording My Final Message, Love You Mom See You in Jannah Bi’idnillah #LondonAttack.”
Images and threats posted to the social network include photographs of guns and what look like explosive devices they claim are packed with ball bearings and nails, with one user named ‘Abu Aiman Al kinyi’ warning, “Bismillah we are coming #londonattack.”
Of note is that one of the people who has apparently re-tweeted it uses a map of Northern Ireland superimposed with the Northern Irish flag. There has been no indications of links between ISIS related terrorism and Northern Irish terrorism in the past.
“TNT explosive belt full with ball baring shrapnel, imagine how much damage this can do in #UK in a place full of people,” states ‘Abu Abdullah Britani’ in another tweet, while another picture of the same device is accompanied with the words, “Very discreet, easy to carry & concealed under the clothing. They’d never know, walk into a police station, TA office.”
Abu Aman Al Kinyi’s identity is not known but Abu Abdulla Britani is the name used in the past by 2 British Jihadis; Mohammed Emwazi the man known as “Jihadi John” and Abu Aziz. Of note since Emwazi’s “outing” earlier this year, nothing has been heard of him and it is not clear if he has just gone to ground or has been killed.
Analysts from Global Risk Awareness, a world leading cyber Intelligence Company who intercepted many of the tweets, have said that they have clear information that these messages are from Abu Rahin Aziz, a 33 year old, from Luton, who skipped bail before he was handed a 36-week jail sentence in his absence for attacking a football fan in London’s West End. Aziz was once a member of the Muslim Against Crusaders group, who burnt a large poppy on Armistice Day in 2010.
The twitter accounts making these threats had been active for hours but were shut down by the ‘Anonymous’ hacking group earlier today. Scotland Yard authorities are aware of the threats. ‘Anonymous’ have declared a self proclaimed war on ISIS.
Weeks before the Charlie Hebdo massacre ISIS calls for attacks via social media increased and since then there has been violence in Paris, Sydney, Copenhagen and Texas.
Abu Rahin Aziz is understood to be a high ranking member of the more extreme foreign fighter brigade in ISIS, a personal friend of Jihadi John and has called for attacks in London, specifically mentioning Big Ben in the past.
Talking to Aimen Dean from 5 Dimension consultants who are leading experts in jihadi tactics he said “In our analysis we believe the threat is genuine and could be imminent, however we believe that the target could be a different location to the one mentioned (Covent Garden). Instead this may be a code word for another target and we advise extra caution across the whole of central London especially the West End, the city, Canary Warf, the Westfield Malls and Whitehall.”
Scotland Yard have told the Daily Mail that the threat and the inflammatory hashtag ‘was not credible’.
