The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) recently threatened to attack major cities in the world such as New York, London, Paris and the Vatican to name a few, over the Christmas and New Year festive season. And now, NYC has woken up to another scare after a man wearing an ISIS face scarf posted a selfie outside the famous Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The image was posted to a pro-ISIS group on messaging app Telegram and shows the man standing on 5th Avenue in New York City on a snowy day and carries a caption that reads: "We are in your home." The image was first spotted by terror watchdog Memri, reported the New York Post, but its authenticity is yet to be verified.
Another image has also appeared online and it shows a cell phone, held by a person, with ISIS' logo on the home screen. The image seems to have been taken in front of the World Trade Centre.
While the New York Police Department is aware of these photos doing the rounds on the internet and said that it is being cautious, it explained that at present there seemed to be no threat. "At this time there are no credible threats related to New York City," the daily quoted the NYPD as saying.
The terror group has in the last few weeks released quite a few videos and propaganda posters warning of attacks during the holidays and also urged its supporters to take up arms. Supporters of ISIS had earlier shared a propaganda image, in which the group threatened to attack NYC at Christmas time.
#BREAKING: ISIS releases a photo of what appears to be one of their supporters in front of New York's Metropolitan Museum. pic.twitter.com/3le9A5YPzl
— UA News (@UrgentAlertNews) January 2, 2018
The poster featured a caption that read: "We meet at Christmas in New York... soon," and showed Santa Claus on a roof of a building overlooking the Times Square. Next to Santa is a box of dynamite. The terror group has been encouraging lone-wolf attacks in New York and also released a poster that showed an ISIS fighter holding a knife with a caption superimposed on the image. "It's cheaper than a chainsaw," it read.
Apart from NYC, the terror group also threatened to attack Paris on New Year's Day in a digitally created propaganda poster. The poster showed revellers in front of the Arc de Triomphe and the image was coated with a knife dripping with blood. The caption on the poster read: "We will make New Year's Day hell."
The group's other targets were London's Regent Street and Paris' Eiffel Tower, both decked up in Christmas lights. These posters also show a crowd of revellers at Christmas markets in various places in UK, France and Germany and carried the caption: "Soon on your holidays," written in English, French and German. ISIS also seems to be aiming to attack the Vatican in Rome and one of the posters shows a terrorist armed with a rocket launcher overlooking the St Peter's Square in the Vatican.
This particular image also has a message for the attacker that says: "Do not hold back with your blood, the reward is paradise."
