ISIS, the jihadist group in Syria, Iraq and Libya, has claimed it could purchase a nuclear device and transport same to the United States, through a network of countries including Nigeria, up to Mexico.
In its latest propaganda magazine, Dabiq, published two weeks ago, the group said the plan is workable the same way banned drugs are transported through West Africa to Western countries, saying it could even be easier with the presence of Boko Haram, the Nigeria-based group that recently pledged allegiance to ISIS.
ISIS also described the Nigerian Army as “an exhausted and smashed national army that is now in a virtual state of collapse”.
Currently, it said Boko Haram insurgents have taken control of much of Nigeria and their attacks are intensifying and pushing back the military.
That claim contradicts recent successes recorded by the Nigerian military which has recovered several towns seized by the militant group in the last.
In an op-ed piece titled, “The Perfect Storm,” attributed to a kidnapped British photojournalist, John Cantlie, it said the terrorist organisation which started as a movement in Iraq has suddenly turned into a global phenomenon that the West and the democratic world as a whole is ill-equipped to deal with.
Mr. Cantlie has appeared in many propaganda videos released by ISIS after he was kidnapped by the extremist group.
“Nothing on this scale has happened this big or this quick before. Huge swathes of Pakistan, Nigeria, Libya, Yemen, and the Sinai Peninsula are all now united under the black flag of tawhīd, gelled together as one by the Islamic State,” the piece said.
“They (Boko Haram) declared allegiance to the Caliphate in March, and they are the same group, remember, that Obama claimed just last year was being successfully pushed back by American intervention policy.
“Indeed, he claimed that the same model (cutting finances, recruitment tools, and the will to fight) that worked so ‘well’ in the degradation of the mujāhidīn there before their pledge of allegiance, would work just as well on the Islamic State. Some things just don’t work out as planned.”
The article said the idea of reaching the U.S. with a deadly nuclear device is not as far-fetched.
“Let me throw a hypothetical operation onto the table,” Cantlie wrote. “The Islamic State has billions of dollars in the bank, so they call on their wilāyah in Pakistan to purchase a nuclear device through weapons dealers with links to corrupt officials in the region.
“The weapon is then transported overland until it makes it to Libya, where the mujāhidīn move it south to Nigeria. Drug shipments from Columbia bound for Europe pass through West Africa, so moving other types of contraband from East to West is just as possible.
“The nuke and accompanying mujāhidīn arrive on the shorelines of South America and are transported through the porous borders of Central America before arriving in Mexico and up to the border with the United States.
“From there it’s just a quick hop through a smuggling tunnel and hey presto, they’re mingling with another 12 million ‘illegal’ aliens in America with a nuclear bomb in the trunk of their car.”
The Nigerian military did not comment on the article. Defence spokesperson, Chris Olukolade, did not respond to calls and text messages on Tuesday.
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