Two Swedes were shot and killed on Monday is a possible ISIS terror attack in retaliation for a 6-year-old Muslim boy who was killed.
The Muslim boy was killed in Illinois on Saturday. The two murders were reported as revenge after a landlord in the Chicago area, allegedly stabbed and killed a -year-old Muslim boy and seriously wounded his mother. It is believed that the landlord did this because the tenants were both Muslim.
Afte the double murder on Monday, a man posted a video to social media claiming to be the assailant in the attack. In the video, he also revealed he was from the Islamic State.
Eric Van Duyse, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office, said the investigation became centered on “a possible terrorist motivation for the shooting” after “a claim of responsibility was posted on social media.
“This person claims to be inspired by Islamic State,” Van Duyse added. “The Swedish nationality of the victims was put forward as the probable motive.”
Following the murders, Brussels responded as if it was a terrorist attack from ISIS. The anti-terror center raised the terror alert to its top rating of 4, meaning a “threat is extremely serious.” The alert level or the rest of the country was raised to 2.
The landlord suspecting of murdering the 6-year-old boy and attacking his mother has been arrested. At a hearing Monday, prosecutors told the court the attacker had been closely listening to coverage of the violence in Israel and was convinced his Muslim tenants would harm him as part of Hamas’ “day of jihad” Friday.
The man claiming responsibility for the attack in Brussels wrote on Facebook, “They called it a brutal crime because he was a Muslim,” according to a Belgium outlet. “If the murdered were a Christian and the murderer was a Muslim, the subject would have been terrorism.”
To hear Tony Katz’s thoughts on the murders and the Brussels attacker’s Facebook post, click the link below.
