ISIS propaganda video threatens terror attacks against Vegas

Police and counter-terrorism officials in Las Vegas are on alert after an ISIS propaganda video calling for lone wolf knife and truck attacks on the city's famed Strip has been deemed a credible threat.


The threat emerged last week in a sick 44-minute video from the terrorist group that showed footage of Caesar's Palace, the Bellagio Hotel and other icons from the casino row on South Las Vegas Boulevard.


Though the footage has been determined to be from 2015, authorities are taking no chances in the wake of the Manchester Arena massacre, and as the coming Memorial Day holiday weekend is expected to bring big crowds to The Strip.


'I think anytime somebody goes on the internet and makes a threat that they're going to conduct a lone-wolf or any type of attack, it's our responsibility to view it as a credible threat,' Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Christopher Darcy, who heads the Southern Nevada Counter-Terrorism Center, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.


'It would be irresponsible not to take any threat as credible, especially when made by a group such as ISIS, who has in fact carried out attacks in the past,' Darcy said.


The terror propaganda video, released by ISIS on May 17, features extremist fighters from the US, Canada, the UK, Russia and Belgium, who call on Muslims living in the West to carry attacks on civilian targets.


The chilling ISIS threat video, unusually long for propaganda from the group, also features a man who appears to be American calling on lone wolf supporters to 'liberate' themselves and kill those who reject Islam by stabbing them, throwing them off buildings and driving cars into citizens.


As images of The Strip, as well as New York's Times Square and Washington DC, flash across the screen, ISIS spokesman Abu Al-Hassan Al-Muhajir is heard urging lone wolf attacks in America, Russia and Europe, according to an analysis of the video by the Middle East Research Institute.


'Know that our war with our enemy is an all out war and the interests of the enemy can be easily targeted,' read English subtitles to the screed in Arabic.


'Make sure they are preoccupied with their own safety, thus diverting their attention away from your Caliphate,' Al-Hassan says.


The speech exhorting violence plays over a song by the German rapper Deso Dogg, whose real name is Denis Cuspert, a known ISIS militant.
Las Vegas police are stepping up patrols in light of the new threat, and urge vigilance from the community.


'Las Vegas continues to be an event destination — one of the world's greatest event destinations,' Darcy told the Review-Journal.


'We have to continue to maintain safety and (create) new ways to ensure the safety of the folks that are attending these events.'
The clip also shows footage of a weapons cache, including drones.


It features a man identified by the terror group as Abu Hamza al-Amriki - al-Amriki meaning 'The American'.


In the video, believed to have been made in Mosul, he is seen stating in English: 'America today is the one carrying the banner of the cross and waging war against Muslims.


'It openly declares that its goal to wipe out Islamic State. May they fail and lose.'


He describes air strikes against ISIS targets as 'savage' saying thousands of women and children had been killed by US forces.


'Does it not pain you that your brothers, their honor has been violated and their bodies torn apart?


'Are you incapable of stabbing a (non believer) with a knife or throwing him off of a building or running him over with a car?


'Liberate yourself from hellfire by killing a (non believer). A (non believer) and his killer will not be joined together in hellfire'


He was shown showing off a cache of weapons, including rocket launchers and projectile missile launchers, which he claimed were US-manufactured.


'This demonstrates the stupidity and foolishness of the (Americans),' he said.