ISIS Calls for Attacks at the World Cup

ISIS has called for its supporters to attack the World Cup, which begins on June 14 in Moscow, in online propaganda, The Daily Mail reports.

A French group with ties to ISIS released one poster showing a knife cutting the World Cup symbol, a trophy, in a front of a red-tinted picture of a stadium. ISIS groups previously released similar posters threatening the event, many specifically addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin. In April, ISIS released a poster stating: "Putin, you disbeliever, you will pay the price for killing Muslims," in front of a picture of a man holding a machine gun with a packed stadium in the background.

In March, ISIS supporters targeted Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi, releasing a poster showing him on his knees in Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow with a masked man holding his head, with the message: "So strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.”

Last year, ISIS supporters released a poster showing Messi crying blood with the message: "You are fighting a state that does not have failure in its dictionary."

In December of 2017, ISIS took responsibility for an attack on a supermarket in St. Petersburg, Russia, in which 18 people were injured.

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