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Isis supporters threaten UK with terror attacks in new propaganda video

Analysts have said the group's propaganda strategy is in 'crisis' and alienating potential recruits 

Lizzie Dearden
Tuesday 05 April 2016 08:25 BST
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Isis has suffered a growing number of setbacks in recent weeks in Iraq and Syria
Isis has suffered a growing number of setbacks in recent weeks in Iraq and Syria

Isis supporters have released a new video calling for terror attacks in London, Berlin and Rome against a backdrop that suggests the terror group's propaganda machine may be in crisis.

The video, called “Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands”, calls on extremists to “kill (infidels) wherever you find them”.

After showing footage of the attacks in Paris and Brussels, as well as 9/11, the narrator calls the previous atrocities a “cautionary message” to nations fighting the so-called Islamic State.

“If it was Paris yesterday, and today in Brussels, Allah knows where it will be tomorrow,” a narrator says in English. “Maybe it will be in London or Berlin or Rome.”

The propaganda film was released on Monday by a group called Al Wa’ad Media Production, which activists in Raqqa say support Isis.

Claiming responsibility for the bombings that killed more than 30 people in Brussels last month, militants threaten to bring more “dark days” to Europe.

Gilles Kepel, a French expert on jihadism, told The Independent that Isis’ propaganda message had become “muddled”.

“Its communication is in crisis,” he said. “These indiscriminate attacks have fallen on multi-cultural cities with exactly the kind of Muslim populations they are trying to recruit.

Palmyra after Isis

“But these actions have not brought Muslims together [behind Isis]. Far from it.”

However, terrorism experts say the latest atrocity in Brussels shows the group lashing out as it suffers military defeats in its territories and has top commanders picked off by air strikes.

A note attributed to one of the Brussels bombers, Brahim el-Bakraoui, showed panic and disorganisation as he wrote of being “in a rush” and feeling “hunted” by security forces.

The assault came days after the capture of surviving Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam in a huge intelligence coup for European authorities.

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