Brussels (Dispatches) -- The Daesh terrorist group has vowed “revenge” over the killing of its former leader, urging supporters to take advantage of the conflict in Ukraine to stage attacks in Europe.
“We announce, relying on God, a blessed campaign to take revenge” over the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi and the group’s former spokesman, said an audio message attributed to the group and circulated on the Telegram messaging app.
The group’s new spokesman, Abu-Omar al-Muhajir, called on supporters to scale up attacks in Europe, taking advantage of the “available opportunity” of “the crusaders fighting each other,” in an apparent reference to the raging conflict in Ukraine.
The former Daesh leader was reportedly killed in early February during an illegal helicopter raid by invading U.S. Special Forces in the northwest Syrian town of Atmeh near the Turkish border.
The U.S. raid in the northern Idlib province also killed 13 civilians, including women and six children, according to the UN and rights groups.
The American military first claimed – without any evidence -- that the Daesh leader killed himself and his family by detonating an explosive after the attack but later retracted the account amid growing criticism, citing local witnesses.
The terrorist group confirmed Qurashi’s death on March 10 and introduced Abu Hasan al-Hashemi al-Qurashi as the new leader. Little is known about him, the group’s third chief since its inception.
The group’s new terrorist threat in Europe comes as Western governments, along with the U.S., largely ignored warnings about Daesh’s nearly open recruitment of fighting forces across Europe and their transfer – through Turkey – to Syria, where the West, along with its regional allies, was sponsoring a massive terror campaign to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The warnings about the massive recruitment of Europe-based terrorists fueled concerns about the prospect of battlefield-trained terrorists returning to Europe and potentially waging terror attacks there.
Numerous attacks have been staged across Europe by Daesh insurgents in recent years.
The U.S. military has long been suspected of training and aiding Daesh and other terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq in their bid to destabilize both Arab countries, justify the deployment of troops in the areas and undermine local anti-Israeli resistance forces.
Recent reports said the U.S. military had secretly transferred a large number of Daesh members from al-Khan al-Jabal Camp in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province, which is run by allied Kurdish militants, to a facility in neighboring Iraq.
Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported last Thursday that American forces relocated hundreds of Daesh terrorists and their families on board heavy-duty inmate transports, and the vehicles were escorted by militants from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The U.S. forces used a convoy of more than 200 vehicles to transport them to Iraq through the illegal al-Waleed crossing, it added.
The U.S. military frequently trains anti-Damascus militants at the Al-Tanf base near Syria’s borders with Iraq and Jordan.
Several captured Daesh terrorists have already confessed to their cooperation with US military forces stationed at Al-Tanf in the central Syrian province of Homs in carrying out acts of terror and sabotage.