Al Qaeda calls for ‘lone-wolf’ attacks on US

WASHINGTON - A gunman on a shooting spree in a restaurant or a single man unit placing a bomb in a crowded place, an Al Qaeda-affiliated online journal is pushing would-be terrorists to launch ‘lone-wolf’ attacks on the US instead of travelling abroad to join extremist groups.

According to a Washington Times report, the latest edition of Inspire magazine, released this week, says such attacks with firearms - like a shooting rampage in a Washington-area eatery - are a more effective way for would-be ‘martyrs’ to wage Al Qaeda’s war against the US.

“Do not attempt to travel overseas to join the Mujahideen in an overt matter [sic],” reads an article in the magazine, provided to The Washington Times by the Middle East Media Research Institute, which tracks Al Qaeda publications.

“We strongly encourage our brothers to fight jihad on US soil,” says the article, titled “Tips for Our Brothers in the United States of America.”

The 74-page, full-colour magazine, produced online in the portable document format (PDF) by Al Qaeda’s Yemen-based affiliate group, appears to be written by a small number of English-speaking and US-reared extremists, the Washington Times report said..

This week’s release is the second edition. The first was published in June. Much of the new edition has been previously published or is a reworking of old material, the report said.

“A random shooting rampage at a crowded restaurant in Washington D.C. at lunch hour, for example, might end up knocking out a few government employees” and would attract “additional media attention”, the article suggests.

Another article suggests welding blades to the front of a pickup truck to use “as a mowing machine, not to mow grass, but mow down the enemies of Allah”.

“Pick your location and time carefully. Go for the most crowded locations. . To achieve maximum carnage, you need to pick up as much speed as you can while still retaining good control,” the article states.

According to the Washington Times, the tactic echoes an attack in March 2006, when Mohammed Taheri-azar, an Iranian-born U.S. citizen, injured nine people with a sport utility vehicle on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In November 2009, U.S. Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan went on a shooting rampage Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13 people and wounded 32 more.

Early this year, Faizal Shazad, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen tried to detonate a crude bomb at the Times Square in New York.

The Washington Times reports says military analysts caution that lone-wolf attacks can be difficult to prevent because they involve so little communication and preparation.

Brian Fishman, a research fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, noted that Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a second-tier leader of Al Qaeda’s central group based on the Afghan-Pakistan border, recently posted a statement on extremist websites urging recruits not to try to come to Pakistan.

“He said, in effect, ‘fight where you are . the conditions are not right [here]. . We are unable to train and use you effectively,’” Fishman said.

“It’s a lot harder to get someone to act alone where they are then to get them to travel abroad,” Fishman pointed out.

But at the same time, “they are wary of bringing people in . they might be spies,” the article quoted Fisherman as saying.

The would-be Times Square bomber, Shazad, reportedly told investigators that when he tried to volunteer with extremist groups in Pakistan, they thought he was a spy.

Fishman said there are other problems with absorbing so-called “walk-in” recruits from Western countries.

“They don’t want to have to baby-sit people. Even if they aren’t spies, such recruits can be a security liability. . They don’t speak the local language; they don’t know how to get around. . They aren’t trained or tough,” he said.

After noting the dangers of being apprehended while traveling to try to join up overseas, the author of an Inspire article states: “Even if traveling to join the fronts of jihad was accessible and easy, we would still encourage [recruits] to perform operations in the West. To kill a snake, strike its head.”