Federal officials say that security measures across the country will be increase ahead of the July 4th holiday weekend.
Police say that they are concerned about ISIS sympathizers in the country who might heed the group’s call for major terror attacks during the month of Ramadan.
New York Congressman Peter King told ABC there was “great concern” about terror attacks and that it was unusual for officials to put out warnings so far in advance of a holiday unless they had major reason for concern.
“ISIS is incomparable as far as terrorist organizations as far as being able to reach,” King said on “This Week.” “They can reach the disaffected, they can reach the deranged, they can also reach the ideologically committed.”
King is not alone in his concern.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re sitting here a week from today talking about an attack over the weekend in the United States. That’s how serious this is,” Former CIA deputy director Michael Morrell told CBS News.
The warnings come on the heels of three coordinated terrorist attacks in Europe that were claimed by ISIS.
Islamic militants claiming connection to ISIS are warning that they will “cleanse” Israel of all Christians and “non-believers” by the end of Ramadan unless they leave the country.
“Those who work with the Zionists also encourage Muslims to leave their religion and become more secular and open, and they spread evil,” Arabic-language leaflets warns, according to The Jerusalem Post. “They take these Muslims away from us. … We know where they are, but we need help to find them all — all those Christian collaborators.”
“ISIS soldiers will work to kill these people so this country is clean of them and … will clean this country and the Muslim Quarter from these Christians during this holy Ramadan.”
The Jerusalem Post said that no Arabic Christians who received the note would talk to them but their neighbors said the messages have rattled the community.
“They’re fearful for their lives and don’t want to go to the police because they feel that the police won’t be responsive,” an Israeli man told the Post, requesting anonymity.
“What’s most problematic is that in this case individuals aren’t being targeted but an entire group, which is pretty darn serious. If leaflets with swastikas and similar threats were sent to Jewish neighborhoods, people would be outraged. I hope and pray it amounts to nothing at all.”
ISIS has called for terror attacks during Ramadan and has taken responsibility for attacks last week in France, Tunisia and Kuwait.
Three Islamic terror attacks were carried out almost simultaneously today after call for “Ramadan calamity.”
In Lyon, France, a terrorist named Yassin Salih rammed a car through the gate of an American-owned chemical factory. He attempted to blow up the complex but failed. He then decapitated the manager of the complex and posted his head on a fence by the factory. Salih also posted Islamist flags to the fence.
Salih, which French officials confirmed they had under surveillance as a possible terrorist sympathizer, was wounded in the explosion and taken into custody. His wife and one other accomplice have also been taken into custody.
French President Francois Hollande confirmed it was an Islamist terror attack.
In Tunisia, at least two terrorists stormed a beach popular with tourists and gunned down 27 people. An attack on a Shiite mosque in Kuwait has left at least 25 dead. Hundreds were wounded in both attacks.
On Tuesday, the spokesman for the terrorist group ISIS issued a call for “calamity” for “infidels, crusaders, Shiites and apostates”.
“Be keen to conquer in this holy month and to become exposed to martyrdom,” Abu Mohamed al-Adnani said.
Islamic terrorist group ISIS has crucified two children because they ate food before sunset during Ramadan.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported the murders Monday. Muslims are prohibited from taking food or water between sunrise and sunset during Ramadan.
It is the latest in a long string of abuses against children by the Islamic extremists.
“We have had reports of children, especially children who are mentally challenged, who have been used as suicide bombers, most probably without them even understanding,” United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child expert Renate Winter said in February about ISIS. “There was a video placed [online] that showed children at a very young age, approximately 8 years of age and younger, being trained to become child soldiers.”
ISIS has also been reported to have kidnapped over a thousand children to be forced into jihadi training camps.
Iraq’s al-Sumaria TV network aired a Kurdish Democratic Party spokesman in Mosul that said ISIS kidnapped 1,227 from various Mosul neighborhoods. The children have been labeled “Cubs of the Caliphate” and are being educated in the extremist ISIS ideology.
A record-shattering heat wave in Pakistan has left at least 224 people dead.
Officials in Karachi, the country’s largest city with 20 million residents, say that 224 people have been confirmed dead from heat related causes. Hundreds more are being treated for heat stroke or other heat related illnesses.
“Hospitals across the city are overcrowded due to record numbers of patients suffering from heat stroke,” Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar, the health minister for Sindh province, said. “The numbers are unprecedented but the situation is under control.”
Temperatures in the city on Saturday reached close to 113 degrees fahrenheit, the highest recorded temperature in the country in 15 years. Sunday’s high was around 108.5 fahrenheit. The city’s all time record is 117 degrees fahrenheit set in 1979.
Local media reported that 150 bodies were taken to the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth. The morgue usually receives 20 bodies a day.
Many of the country’s residents are Muslim, meaning they are observing Ramadan and not partaking of food and water during the daylight hours. The city is also dealing with frequent power outages that cut off air conditioning and fans.
The heat wave comes after a wave last month in India left over 2,000 people dead.
A Christian in Iran was ordered by a judge to have his lips burned with a cigarette after he did not fast during the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
Ramadan requires all Muslims to fast from food and drink from sunrise to sundown. The Islamic government of Iran is imposing those requirements on all citizens even if they are not Muslims according to sources within Tehran.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran released a statement condemning the actions saying it shows the way Iran targets Christians.
“The silence of the world community, especially of western countries, vis-à-vis these medieval punishments under the excuse of having nuclear talks with Iran has intensified the brutal and systematic violation of human rights in Iran. This will ultimately embolden the Iranian regime to continue its nuclear projects more than before,” read the statement from the France-based group.
Some Muslims within the city are welcoming the strict actions. One Tehran resident lamented the way many residents of the city are not being as strict on the rules.
“In 1995, if someone had even a drop of water, everyone went and reported it and that person would get fired, or just scolded if they were lucky. Not any more, though. People are looking out for each other. I almost miss those days, though. It’s like people’s hearts just aren’t in religion anymore,” a man named Hamid told The Guardian newspaper.
