An American ISIS fighter identified as Abu Ismail al-Amriki speaks in a video released by Al Furat Media after the Orlando attack. (ISIS video screenshot)
An official media affiliate of the Islamic State released a new video this weekend praising the Orlando attack, calling for similar attacks in multiple languages and portraying a suicide bomber striking Times Square.
Titled “You Are Not Held Responsible Except for Yourself,” the Al-Furat Media Foundation release was distributed online with a promotional banner featuring President Obama, Omar Mateen and scenes from the previous weekend’s carnage.
Al-Furat specializes in Russian-language messages to Muslims in the Caucasus and beyond. Earlier this year, for example, the media wing released the Philippine terrorist group Abu Sayyaf’s video pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The video opens with the tag “USA” in the upper corner and shots of an unseen person assembling a bomb to put in a suicide vest. The person buttons up a blue shirt, straps on the bomb belt, and zips up a dark brown leather jacket to conceal it. He’s wearing a stainless steel wristwatch that reads 9:25.
That’s followed by scenes of Times Square and the torso of the leather-jacketed man walking along the street. A TGI Friday’s sign is shown.
In a close-up of the man with no location shown, he’s pulling the ring on his detonator.
It appears to be mock-up footage from an Al-Jazeera segment, with the network’s logo fuzzed out but still discernible.
News footage is then shown of the ABC News building banner in New York scrolling a headline about the November Paris attacks.
Then, pictures of Mateen along with closeups of the weapons he used in the June 12 attack on the Pulse nightclub: a Sig Sauer MCX .223 caliber rifle and Glock 17 9 mm.
pjmedia.com