10 June 2024 , 20:59
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Supporters of Islamic State have issued a call for ‘lone wolves’ to carry out drone strikes on Paris during the 2024 Olympics.
An apparent threat to bomb the French capital was issued on a website which has been linked to the radical Islamist group.
A mock-up image of someone flying a drone carrying a parcel labelled ‘gift’ over large crowds with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
The caption reads: ‘Lone wolves’ Olympics have begun with the Will of Allah (God).’
A post on the website added ‘the Lone Wolves qualifiers have begun, God willing’.
Lone wolf attacks generally refer to terror-motivated killings carried out by individuals without support or direction from an organisation or leader.
Islamic State (IS) has been known to claim responsibility for such incidents even where there is no evidence of direct involvement, such as the 2016 Orlando shooting which killed 49 people at an LGBT-friendly nightclub.
The call for attacks on Paris was posted by the al-Raud project, which Europol has previously described as a ‘video streaming platform for IS releases’.
The website attributes the post to the Al-Adiyat Media Foundation, described by investigators as a pro-IS group which has called for murders and the destruction of churches around the world.
It regularly publishes praiseful updates on the activities of ‘soldiers of the Caliphate’ in various countries, for instance celebrating the killing of 64 Christians in Central African State over the weekend.
The term Caliphate refers to how IS sees itself as an empire whose subjects are loyal only to their leader no matter what country they are in.
French authorities have ramped up security in Paris and the 17 other cities which will be used to host events.
An 18-year-old was recently arrested on suspicion of planning to attack a stadium in Saint-Étienne when it hosts Olympic football games later this summer.
The teenager, named only at Rokhman B, is a Russian national from the majority-Muslim Chechen community whose family moved to France in 2023 and was claiming asylum, according to French media.
Authorities believe he was working with Islamic State in Khorasan, an Afghanistan-based offshoot of IS.