In an alarming interview given to Vice News and posted on YouTube on Thursday, a 21-year-old Canadian jihadist, once assumed dead, has re-emerged, announcing that ISIS is preparing an attack on U.S. soil imminently.
The former movie theater employee from Calgary, Canada, Farah Mohamed Shirdon, made the threats to the Vice News interviewer, suggesting that “a lot of brothers are mobilizing there right now in the West, thanks to Allah.”
Back in August, Shirdon was thought to be dead following widespread news reports that he was killed fighting with ISIS in the Middle East.
In the interview, he said that the ultimate goal of the extremist Islamic group is to fly the black ISIS flag above the White House. He said, “God willing, we will make some attacks in New York soon. Mobilizing for a brilliant attack, my friend.”
The interview, which was conducted on September 23, was made possible after Vice tracked Shirdon down in Iraq through social media.
Shirdon added, “I know so many people, thousands upon thousands upon thousands, who are living in the West and who are ready right now to make an operation in your land.”
In the interview, Shirdon makes it clear that his militant belief system is not due to the influence of people, such as ISIS recruiters. “No one recruited me. All I did, I opened the newspaper, I read the Koran. Very easy,” he said.
The National Post reported that Shirdon said he is under assault from U.S.-led forces in Iraq, who carry out air strikes “day and night.”
In Shirdon’s stark warning to the U.S., which is by no means veiled, he added, “You attack one of us, we will attack one of you. We will stop when we behead the kuffar [disbelievers] and when we turn his children into our slaves.”
