Jihadist massacre in Vienna, what happened
According to Rita Katz, director of the Site Institute, a company that monitors and verifies ISIS online activities, the attack in Vienna is a jihadist retaliation for Austria's participation in the US-led anti-Isis coalition.
After France, Austria. Europe in the crosshairs of jihadist terrorism in a manner similar to the Bataclan massacre.
Dramatic and frightening hours in the heart of Vienna yesterday from 8 pm, with parts of the center of the capital in the hands of terrorists (as underlined on La7 by the former Minister of the Interior, Marco Minniti).
Five deaths including one of the perpetrators of the attack, fifteen wounded and a manhunt still underway to identify any other perpetrators.
According to the latest information provided by the Austrian authorities, the victims of the attack are two men and a woman; among the 15 seriously injured there is also a police officer.
The murdered bomber was armed with an automatic rifle and other firearms, and the police have already ascertained the Islamic origin of the attack.
The terrorist killed last night in Vienna after the attacks in the center of the Austrian capital would be a young Viennese of Albanian origins from North Macedonia. This was reported by the head of the Austrian magazine Falter, Florian Klenk.
“His name is Kurtin S., born in 2000 in Vienna, where he grew up. He is of Albanian descent and his parents are from North Macedonia and have no connection with Islamism, ”Klenk wrote on Twitter. The young terrorist, he added, was known to the anti-terrorism security services (Bvt) for having been one of 90 Austrian Islamists who tried to go to Syria.
Meanwhile, the hunt for the accomplices of the killed assailant continues, with the Cobra operational command, a special department of the Austrian police, deployed in Vienna, together with the Wega operational unit, a special body of the city's law enforcement agencies.
According to the authorities, the fleeing man is heavily armed and dangerous. For hours the police together with the special forces of the Vega and Cobra departments, anti-terrorism agents and hundreds of agents supported by helicopters, have been raking the city center in search of the fugitive.
Checkpoints were created, the operation also included the control of the Austrian borders and the special forces of the army, the Jagdkommando, were activated, which took over the surveillance of public buildings to free the police officers who were stationed in the places. sensitive. "I am pleased that our police officers have already eliminated one of the attackers: we will never be intimidated by terrorism and we will fight these attacks by all means," assured Kurz.
The attacks took place in six different points of the old city, including the street where the main synagogue of the city is located where in 1981 there was an attack that caused two deaths.
There are six places where in the evening shortly after 8 pm in the center of Vienna the terrorist attacks took place, which Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said were carried out by "highly trained professionals".
The locations are all very close, in District 1 of the Austrian capital. The first images came from the Seitenstaettengasse area near the Jewish synagogue, which was closed at the time of the attack, not far from Schwedenplatz, a place overlooking the waters of the Danube canal and very popular with both Viennese and tourists ( there are several restaurants). Other places affected, Salzgries and Morzinplatz, close to Schwedenplatz, but also Fleischmarkt, the street that offers suggestive views and along which stands the Orthodox Church, Bauernmarkt, the famous trade street, and Graben, the shopping street.
For hours the news has been chaotic and at times confused. The police managed to neutralize a heavily armed terrorist (and who according to the mayor of Vienna was wearing an explosive belt and was heavily armed), but there is at least one more on the run.
The first shooting took place right next to the synagogue which, however, had already been closed for a couple of hours and perhaps was not in the crosshairs, but an attacker was killed. Then after the first shooting, the terrorists' mad rush through the alleys of the city, through the alleys and restaurants where people enjoyed the last evening before the lockdown , effective from tomorrow, came into effect.
All recorded by videos, circulated in large numbers on the net, until the police insistently asked to avoid posting them. In a shock we see a man running, taking up an assault rifle and crossing the streets firing; another seems to show the moment in which an unsuspecting passer-by is hit by a terrorist.
Regarding the identity and motivation of the terrorists, the authorities have been very cautious: it is still too early to speculate and the situation is not clear. On line, a photo has appeared that would show one of the perpetrators of the attack in Vienna: the caption that accompanies the image is a declaration of faith to the new head of Isis, al-Qurashi, the successor of the -Baghdadi. The authenticity of the image has not been confirmed.
According to Rita Katz, director of the Site Institute, a company that monitors and verifies ISIS online activities, the attack is a jihadist retaliation for Austria's participation in the US-led anti-Isis coalition.
(article updated at 10.30)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/austria-strage-jihadista-vienna/ on Tue, 03 Nov 2020 14:40:20 +0000.