The State Department is warning Americans to remain alert during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
In a report from the State Department-led Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), security officials warned that “martyrdom during the month may hold a special allure to some.”
An Afghan refugee reads verses of the Quran during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in a mosque on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012.(AP Photo)
An Afghan refugee reads verses of the Quran during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in a mosque on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012.(AP Photo)
The council has released several alerts and travel warnings urging U.S. citizens and organizations around the world to “remain aware of the persistent threat of (ISIS) attacks, both inspired and directed.”
A spokesman for the Islamic State has called on jihadists in the United States and Europe to carry out terror attacks he promised would be “the month of conquest and jihad,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Ramadan, a month of fasting, prayer and religious devotion, begins Sunday, June 5, and will end July 5. It is held each year during the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar.
OSAC said the threatened attacks were announced in a “call to arms” video released by the Islamic State May 21.
In the video, ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani called on jihadists to “get prepared, be ready … to make it a month of calamity everywhere for nonbelievers … especially for the fighters and supporters of the caliphate in Europe and America.”
“The tiniest action you do in the heart of their land is dearer to us than the biggest action by us,” Adnani told followers in the 31-minute audio message, according to the Boston Herald. “There are no innocents in the heart of the lands of the Crusaders.”
OSAC noted in its report that the threat could be credible given the three deadly terror attacks that took place last year shortly after Adnani announced a similar call to arms.
“According to Islamic practice, sacrifice during Ramadan can be considered more valuable than that made at other times, so a call to martyrdom during the month may hold a special allure to some,” the report said, according to the Free Beacon.
Though information regarding a specific terrorist attack has yet to surface, the threat remains high, the report said.
The Islamic State announced its so-called Islamic caliphate during Ramadan in 2014.