Monday November 2nd, a heavily armed attacker shot and killed 4 people and wounded 14 others in a busy shopping and dining district in Vienna. According to Austria’s Minister of Internal Affairs, the gunman is believed to be a radicalized ISIS sympathizer, and the possibility that he was not operating alone cannot be ruled out.
This event is not a stand-alone one – in contrast to the terror attacks in France following the outrage over caricatures of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad published in the French media. Yesterday’s attack in Austria’s capital city may be connected to ISIS’s announcement of the launching of its new campaign of terror attacks on European soil.
The gunman was known by intelligence agencies after attempting to travel to Syria in the past during the Syrian civil war.
The latest audiotape of ISIS spokesman Abu Hamza al-Qureshi was released on October 18, . The tape attacked the Gulf states over normalization agreements with Israel. In addition, the spokesman notes that even if the leader falls (a reference to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi taken out by the USA October 26th, 2019), the Jihad and the Islamic State will continue with all their might! Following the publication of the tape, ISIS announced a new terrorist campaign around the world.
