Report: Islamic State Threatens Washington in New Video

The Islamic State made a new, direct threat to Washington, D.C., in a video released Monday morning, according to Reuters.

The video includes footage of the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris that have killed more than 125 people.

“We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France’s and by God, as we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington,” a man says in the video.

Reuters notes it was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the video, which purports to be the work of Islamic State fighters in the Iraqi province of Salahuddine, north of Baghdad.

Read more at Reuters.

U.S. cities have increased security following the coordinated attacks Friday in Paris.

“ISIS is absolutely a threat beyond the region,” Frances Fragos Townsend, the top White House counterterrorism adviser under President George W. Bush, told The New York Times. “We must not continue to assume that ISIS is merely an away threat. It clearly has international ambitions beyond its self-proclaimed caliphate.”

Includes reporting by Todd Richissin

Photo: snty-tact, Wikimedia