Jihadis shot dead in Texas during attack on cartoonists
TWO Islamist fanatics were shot dead after opening fire at an exhibition of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in Texas.
The Dallas attack is thought to be the first on US soil by Islamic State sympathisers.
A group which organised the provocative event – which offered a prize of $10,000 (£6,610) for the best caricature – was warned in advance on Twitter that it would attract retaliation.
The attackers then drove to the Curtis Culwell conference centre in Garland on Sunday, injuring an unarmed guard in the ankle as they fired at the building.
But they found themselves heavily outgunned after the event’s organisers spent £20,000 hiring a team of security guards backed up by local police. In an exchange of gunfire that lasted just 15 seconds, the pair were shot dead by police officers. One died immediately while the second was wounded but shot again when he reached for his backpack, said police.
The area was evacuated and bomb squad experts despatched but police confirmed yesterday that no explosives had been found.
The attack immediately drew parallels with the January massacre of 12 people at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in which two extremists opened fire at the publication’s offices in Paris after it published a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, which Muslims find offensive.
Although IS has yet to officially admit responsibility for the Texas i ncident, t he t error group’s supporters claimed it had carried out the attack. British IS fighter Junaid Hussain claimed online that ‘two of our brothers just opened fire’ at the event.
Hussain, who was jailed in 2012 for hacking personal information from Tony Blair, added: ‘They Thought They Was Safe In Texas From The Soldiers of The Islamic State.’ The FBI believe the two gunmen had shared a flat in Phoenix, Arizona.
It named one as Elton Simpson, who was convicted five years ago of lying about his plans to travel to Somalia to join a jihadi group. The other was named as Nadir Soofi.
Investigators believe Simpson, 30, used the pseudonym Sharia Is Light to send out several Twitter messages before the attack.
In the last, sent half an hour before the gun battle and bearing the hashtag ‘#texasattack’, he said he and a ‘ bro’ had pledged allegiance to IS leader Al Baghdadi, adding: ‘May Allah accept us as mujahideen’.
Some 200 people attended the exhibition, organised by the American Freedom Defence Initiative, whose founders have been banned from entering Britain.
It featured a speech by the Rightwing Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who has been placed on an Al Qaeda hit-list for making a controversial film.
The gathering was just finishing when the sound of gunfire broke out. Paramilitary- style security guards, wearing camouflage and body armour and carrying assault rifles, shepherded terrified guests into the conference room and locked the doors.
The event was organised in direct response to a Muslim solidarity meeting held in the same building in January called Stand with the Prophet. The American Freedom Defence Initiative yesterday justified its decision to hold the cartoon competition, saying its attempts to defend f ree speech had been attacked by two ‘savages’. Its pres- ident, Pamela Geller, said: ‘ The Islamic jihadis are determined to suppress our freedom of speech violently,’ she said.
The New York-based activist, who led protests on the building of a Muslim community centre near the site of the World Trade Centre, has been banned from entering Britain. In 2013, Home Secretary Theresa May stopped her attending a Far Right rally in Woolwich following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby.
Last night Miss Geller said the group ‘knew the risks’ but had vowed not to be swayed from holding the event, which it called the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest.
On AFDI’s website in March, Miss Geller wrote: ‘We know the risks. Of course, this event will require massive security.
‘But this exhibit has to be staged. If we don’t show the jihadists that they will not frighten us i nto silence, the jihad against freedom will only grow more virulent.
‘And we hope that this event will give others the courage to stand up as well and show the world that they aren’t going to submit to intimidation.’
But locals thought the exhibition was a provocation too far. One resident, Dorothy Brooks, said the event was like shouting ‘fire!’ in a theatre. An imam based in Dallas described the shootings as a ‘lone wolf type of attack’.
The injured security guard, Bruce Joiner, was released from hospital yesterday and investigators said they are not looking for anyone else over the attack.
‘Two of our brothers
just opened fire’ ‘They will not frighten us’