Terror group appears to target West Edmonton Mall
Posted Feb 22, 2015 8:29 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An alleged terror threat is hitting close to home.
In a video released Saturday, the terror group al-Shabaab, linked to al-Qaeda, shows a man speaking English calling for assaults on West Edmonton Mall and the Mall of America in Minnesota.
The video is over an hour long.
CNN international correspondent Nima Elbagir said it’s calling on Muslims around the world to take inspiration from the September 2013 attack on a mall in Kenya that killed more than 60 people.
“He’s asking these foreign fighters to perpetrate these attacks back home,” she said.
“What he’s really saying is ‘you don’t have to come out here.’ It is worrying for authorities because al-Shabaab has had pretty good recruitment tactics in the past within that Somali-American community. Some 27 Somali-Americans travelled to Somalia to fight with al-Shabaab. Somali-Americans really are recruitment ground-zero as part of many of those 150 American fighters that have joined ISIS. There is cause for alarm and officials are taking this very seriously.”
In a statement, West Edmonton Mall officials say they are aware of the video and have implemented extra security measures.
Staff-Sgt. Brent Meyer said the Mounties are investigating the “exact contents and authenticity” of the alleged al-Shabaab video and added “there is no evidence at this time of any specific or imminent threat to Canadians.”
