On October 15, 2017, the Al-Wafa media outlet, associated with the Islamic State (ISIS), released a series of posters threatening the U.S. and Russia.[1] The posters threaten terror at the 2018 World Cup games, to be held in Russia next summer, and also threaten U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. One of the posters includes text by one of Al-Wafa's main writers, "Abu Mariyya Al-Asif," urging lone wolves to carry out attacks "in the heart of the infidels' homes," i.e., in the West.
The following are the posters:
Poster threatening the 2018 World Cup games, captioned "Expect Us."
Poster threatening Trump and Putin. The caption at the bottom says: "And lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war [Qur'an 9:5]. Syria will become a graveyard for the Russians and the Americans."
Poster featuring text by Abu Mariyya Al-Asif, who writes frequently on Al-Wafa: "My brother, the lone wolf [attacker], put your faith in Allah and hurry to meet your Lord by carrying out a blessed attack in the heart of the infidels' homes, as was done by your predecessors, to whom Allah granted the great privilege of treading this blessed path. So make with your Lord a transaction that is never without profit. You shall be the seller and He the buyer. Your reward shall be Paradise.[2] Can you even conceive what Paradise holds? It holds what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and the mind of no man has conceived."[3]
Poster featuring general threat to America: "America, by Allah your armies will be beaten and they will flee and by Allah we will invade you in your homelands."
[1] Telegram, October 15, 2017.
[2] A reference to Quran 9:111: "Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah , so they kill and are killed. [It is] a true promise [binding] upon Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur'an. And who is truer to his covenant than Allah ? So rejoice in your transaction which you have contracted. And it is that which is the great attainment."
[3] From a hadith narrated by Abu Huraira.
