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Deadly attack in Kenya directed against ‘Zionist Jews,’ terror group says

Somali Islamist terror group claims deadly Nairobi atrocity was response to ‘desecration’ of Jerusalem by ‘Zionist Jews.’

By Ben Cohen, The Algemeiner

The Somali Islamist terror group that carried out Tuesday’s attack on a hotel complex in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi has issued a fresh statement declaring that the atrocity was directed against “Zionist Jews.”

The assault claimed the lives of 14 people, including U.S. citizen Jason Spindler — a survivor of the Sept. 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda atrocity in New York.

On Tuesday night, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that security forces had regained control of the complex, with all the terrorists “eliminated” in the process.

Wednesday’s statement from the Somalia-based Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (more commonly known as “Al-Shabaab”), an affiliate of Al-Qaeda, stated that it had carried out the Nairobi attack as “a response to the witless remarks of U.S. President Donald Trump and his declaration of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as the capital of Israel.”

The statement accused Trump of having granted “the Zionist Jews the approval to desecrate the sanctity of one of Islam’s holiest sites with their filth and vile policies of ethnic cleansing without considering the suffering of the millions of Muslims languishing under the throes of the Zionist occupation for decades.”

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Headlined “Jerusalem Will Never Be Judaized,” the statement was published on Al-Shabaab’s channel on the social media platform Telegram, and subsequently translated by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Al-Shabaab claimed to have killed more than 50 “unbelievers” in Nairobi, adding that the attack was carried out “in accordance with the guidelines of Ayman al-Zawahiri in targeting Western and Zionist interests worldwide and in support of our Muslim families in Palestine.”

Al-Zawahiri has led Al-Qaeda since the killing of its founder, Osama bin Laden, by US special forces in May 2011.

Noting that Tuesday’s attack was “among a series of operations specifically targeting Western and Zionist interests in Africa,” the Al-Shabaab statement called on the “Muslims families in Palestine” to be patient and rest assured that the “Zionist occupiers and their Western patrons and protectors will never find safety anywhere until safety becomes a reality in Palestine and all Muslim lands.”

“Be patient for all the injustices of the Zionist and the Crusaders will be meted out to them in equal measure,” it went on to say.

The statement concluded with a message to the “Zionist Jews,” whom it described as “killers of the Prophets and brothers of monkeys and pigs,” saying:

“Know that by oppressing the Muslims in Palestine, you are waging a war against the entire Muslim ummah (global community of believers). Neither Britain nor America will be able to protect you from the strikes of the mujahideen. Know that we will hold you to account for every blood spilt in Palestine ounce for ounce. What awaits you is a fate similar to that of your ancestors of Bani Quraydha (a Jewish tribe in Arabia during the 7th century) at the hands of the Prophet Muhammad and his noble companions.”