Al Shabaab Threatens Attacks on US

Al Shabaab threatens attacks on Western shopping centres

Al Shabaab Islamists have called for attacks on shopping malls in the United States, Canada, France and Britain in a video posted Saturday. The Somalia-based group launched a 2013 siege on Nairobi's Westgate mall that left more than 60 people dead.

The al Qaeda-linked insurgent group specifically threatened the Mall of America in the US state of Minnesota, Canada's West Edmonton Mall, London's famous Oxford Street shopping hub and two malls in France – Le Forum des Halles and Les Quatre Temps.

US homeland security chief Jeh Johnson on Sunday warned Americans to remain vigilant.

"I would say that if anyone is planning to go to the Mall of America today, they've got to be particularly careful," Johnson said on CNN's "State of the Union".

Western nations are increasingly jittery about the threat of "lone wolf" attacks carried out by self-radicalised, homegrown terrorists.

Another US administration official said, however, that there was "no indication of a specific, credible threat to the US".

But recent attacks in Paris, Copenhagen and Ottawa by homegrown extremists have set security officials on edge, and prompted Washington to sponsor a security summit last week to discuss the threat.

Al Shabaab gunmen carried out a bloody siege on the Westgate mall in Nairobi in September 2013 that killed at least 67 people.

In a video distributed on Twitter Saturday, the group ran a documentary-style account of the Kenya attack. It was followed by the appearance of a masked fighter who suggested similar attacks could be carried out on malls in the West.

"If just a handful of mujahideen fighters could bring Kenya to a complete standstill for nearly a week, just imagine what the dedicated mujahideen could do in the West to American or Jewish shopping centres across the world," the militant said.

"What if such an attack were to occur in the Mall of America in Minnesota? Or the West Edmonton Mall in Canada? Or in London's Oxford Street?" he said.

The video was picked up by SITE, a group that monitors jihadist websites and threats.

'New phase' in terror threats

Johnson said the Islamists' latest warning was indicative of a new type of homegrown threat and requires careful tracking of people suspected of supporting militant groups.

"This latest statement from al Shabaab reflects the new phase we've evolved to in the global terrorist threat, in that you have groups such as al Shabaab, ISIL (also known as the Islamic State group), publicly calling for independent actors in their homelands to carry out attacks," said Johnson.

"We're beyond the phase now where these groups would send foreign operatives into countries after being trained someplace," he added.

Johnson said the government has to take it seriously any time a group calls for an attack against a specific place.

Wassim Nasr, FRANCE 24's specialist on jihadist movements, says that we are in a new era of terror threats.

"The terror threat does not come from abroad," said Nasr. "It's before everything a local threat."

The Mall of America – reputedly the country's largest, with 40 million visitors a year – said it had taken extra security measures in response to the threat.

"Enhanced security measures to include additional personnel have been implemented and all information is being monitored," said the police department for Bloomington, the Minneapolis-St Paul suburb where the shopping center is located.

"At this time, there is no credible threat associated with Mall of America," it said, adding that the facility was a "very safe place".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)