The Islamic State has urged its followers around the world to target Turks and their diplomatic missions wherever they are, calling Turkish president “the beggar before the doors of crusader Europe.”
Abi al-Hassan al-Muhajer, the new spokesman of ISIS following the death of a former mouthpiece in August, asked supporters in an audio recording to target the Turkish government, its media and financial arms.
He said the ISIS should target “the secular, apostate Turkish government in every security, military, economic and media establishment, including every embassy and consulate, that represents it in all countries of the world,” according to Reuters.
“Destroy their vehicles, raid them … in their shelters so they can taste some of your misery and do not talk yourselves into fleeing,” Muhajer said.
Turkey has been under fire for turning a blind eye to the flow of foreign fighters through its territory to join ISIS in Syria. Since Turkey agreed to undertake a larger role in anti-ISIS operations in Syria and Iraq in the summer of 2015, it has been a frequent target by the insurgent group. This summer, Turkey-backed Syrian rebels sealed the Turkish-Syrian border after driving out ISIS militants and Turkey built a long wall along the Syrian border to prevent cross-border movement of fighters.
Turkey’s campaigns seem to continue angering the insurgent group.
ISIS spokesman blasted every major Western country fighting against its self-declared caliphate as well as Kurds and Shiites. With respect to Turkey, Muhajer’s threats were hair-raising.
“Kill Turks wherever you know they are present and seek them by every means, above every earth and below every sky,” he said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Rita Katz, Director of SITE Intelligence, a group that monitors extremist networks, tweeted that Muhajer urged supporters to attack “Turkish military, economic and media targets, as well as its embassies around the world.”