Abi al-Hassan al-Muhajer, a newly identified spokesman for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), urged sympathizers around the world to carry out attacks targeting Turkish diplomatic, military and financial interests abroad, Reuters has reported.
In an online message on Monday, al-Muhajer said ISIL supporters would target “the secular, apostate Turkish government in every security, military, economic and media establishment, including every embassy and consulate, that represents it in all countries of the world.”
“Destroy their vehicles, raid them … in their shelters so they can taste some of your misery and do not talk yourselves into fleeing,” Muhajer said in an audio recording posted online.
ISIL identified Muhajer as its new media spokesman in a recording posted on Al Furqan, a media outlet linked to the group, on Monday. It gave little information about Muhajer, an obscure figure not widely known in the media or to experts.
Turkey appeared to have been chosen as a target because it has backed rebels in Syria against ISIL, threatening to drive ISIL fighters from the town of al-Bab and backing rebels who crossed into Syria and took the border town of Jarablus from the jihadists. Most recently, Turkish warplanes destroyed 12 ISIL targets on Saturday.