March 20, 2014 | Quote
Terrorism of the Mundane: Al Qaeda’s Shift to Street Jihad Tactics
I’ve often wondered when the Islamists would bring the kind of IED tactics that were deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq against western soldiers to the cities of North America. We’ve already had a taste of this kind of public terrorism that deliberately targets civilians with the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013. But it the lasted edition of the Al Qaeda propaganda magazine is anything to go by, it won’t be the last.
The 12th issue of Inspire, Al Qaeda in the Arab Penninsula’s glossy propaganda magazine, was posted online on Friday. Dated “Spring 2014,” it offers a cover story entitled “Shattered: A Story about Change” that argues the United States is a declining power.
Be that as it may, the most troubling aspect of the edition, at least from the viewpoint of western counter-terrorist agencies, is the advice being offered to would-bejihadists (and, as it seems, anyone with a grudge against contemporary western society). In a section entitled “Open Source Jihad,” readers are told how, acting as individuals or in small groups, they can hasten the fall of the West, particularly, the United States, by attacking Westerners in their malls, sports arenas and other public gathering places with homemade bombs.
As journalist Thomas Joscelyn writes in the latest edition of The Long War Journal, the article’s author, dubbed the “AQ Chef,” explains how a shrapnel bomb can be assembled from common household items, including cooking gas cylinders and nails. The device can be set off by a ‘martyrdom bomber,’ by a timer, or with a remote detonator. In the last instance, AQAP suggests a ‘toy-car remote, alarm remote, garage remote or any other,’ as long as the bomb maker tests the remote first.
“The ‘AQ Chef’ also offers what he calls ‘field data’ on the types of targets that should be attacked. ‘This type of car bomb is used to kill individuals and NOT to destroy buildings,’ he says. ‘Therefore, look for a dense crowd.’”
Indeed, the article tells would-be jihadists to target places ‘flooded with individuals, e.g. sports events in which tens of thousands attend, election campaigns, festivals and other gathering [sic]. The important thing is that you target people and not buildings.”
The United States “‘is our first target, followed by [the] United Kingdom, France and other crusader countries,” (which, presumably, includes the ‘crusader’ country of Canada), says the AQ Chef, advocating the targeting of places such as Washington DC, New York, northern Virginia, with its large military presence and government agencies – CIA headquarters at Langley? – and Chicago and Los Angeles.
And what would make good targets in these cities? According to the AQ Chef,jihadist should target vulnerable places where civilians gather – restaurants, bars, shopping malls, sports stadiums and tourist sites.