August 13, 2014
A British schoolboy-turned jihadist who appeared in a recruitment video for Islamist militants in Syria has apparently boasted online of blowing up a building with his own homemade bombs. A Twitter account believed to belong to Nasser Muthana displayed before-and-after photographs of a building at a Syrian army base that had been reduced to rubble. The photographs come a month after the 20-year-old from Cardiff warned that the UK should be afraid of the terror skills he has learnt in the Syrian war. In early July he posted an image of a stack of improvised explosive devices in a garage. In the latest message he boasted: “Army base buildings before and after, I’m getting good with these bombs.”
He also said fighters with the Islamic State, previously known as Isis, would slaughter any men from the besieged Yazidi sect they captured in northern Iraq and would enslave their women and children.
Meanwhile Scotland Yard said it was investigating leaflets being handed out on London’s Oxford Street which apparently encouraged British Muslims to join the Islamic State. Dozens of leaflets were handed out on Tuesday night saying it is the responsibility of Muslims to pledge allegiance to the “khaleef”, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who leads the extremists. A spokesman for Scotland Yard said it had been “made aware of leaflets which reports state were being distributed in the Oxford Street area. “We are assessing the content of the leaflets to establish whether any criminal offences have been committed.” No arrests have been made.
