The Somali based terror group Al Shabaab, which has a strong foothold in Minnesota, threatened over the weekend to carry out a gruesome mall attack similar to the one in Kenya two years ago. The threat was specifically issued against the Mall of America, the nation's largest shopping center and an attraction people from all over the world visit. Although they say there isn't credible evidence of an attack being planned, federal and local authorities are taking the threat seriously and are asking Americans to remain vigilant. More from Fox News:
A new video from Al Shabaab purportedly shows the terror group calling for an attack on Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minn.
According to Fox 9, the mall is one of three similar targets the terror group specifically names, including West Edmonton Mall in Canada and the Oxford Street shopping area in London.
The video purportedly shows 6 minutes of graphic images and the terrorists celebrating the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya, that killed more than 60 people.
The narrator, his face wrapped in a black-and-white kaffiyeh-type scarf and wearing a camouflage jacket, spoke with a British accent and appeared to be of Somali origin. He accused Kenyan troops in Somalia of committing abuses against Somali Muslims.
He ended the video by calling on Muslim men to attack other shopping malls in Western countries.
"We will continue to monitor events with the help of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies," Mall of America said in a statement. "As always, we take any potential threat seriously and respond appropriately. Mall of America has implemented extra security precautions, some may be noticeable to guests, and others won't be. We will continue to follow the situation, along with law enforcement, and will remain vigilant as we always do in similar situations."
Mall of America is a "gun free," anti-concealed carry zone, making it even more of a soft-target for terror groups who have people embedded in U.S. cities. As a reminder, just eight men killed at least 67 people and wounded nearly hundred during the horrifying Kenya Westgate mall attack in 2013. Hostages were held and tortured for 80-hours before the siege ended.
A police doctor scouring Nairobi’s Westgate mall for bodies after a four-day siege by Islamist gunmen that claimed dozens of lives has said victims were tortured before they died, according to a Kenyan newspaper.
“Those are not allegations. Those are f****** truths,” the doctor, a forensics expert, told The Star newspaper. “They removed balls, eyes, ears, nose. They get your hand and sharpen it like a pencil then they tell you to write your name with the blood. They drive knives inside a child’s body. Actually, if you look at all the bodies, unless those ones that were escaping, fingers are cut by pliers, the noses are ripped by pliers.”
It is believed that at least 15 Somali men from the Minneapolis area have left the United States for Syria to join ISIS. The Islamic radicalization of young men in the Twin Cities has been a major problem for years.