Washington: Islamic State-linked hackers have released a “kill list” of over 8,700 people, mostly from the the US and UK, calling for lone wolf attacks on the targets in a chilling video posted online, according to a media report.
The hackers, known as the United Cyber Caliphate (UCC), ordered those watching to, “Kill them wherever you find them”, Fox News reported. The video, just under six minutes, begins with a warning for the United States. “We have a message to the people of the US and most importantly your President (Donald) Trump,” the text on the screen reads.
In the posting on Telegram — a private messaging app — the group first warned that a release of the names was imminent. About 10 minutes later, the hackers posted the actual list of 8,786 names and addresses, which includes names of seemingly random individuals from primarily the US and UK, according to terror monitoring group SITE.
“More than 7,000 of the names were from the US,” a source from the cyber department at SITE was quoted as saying. “Know that we continue to wage war against you. Know that your counter attacks only make us stronger. The UCC will start a new step in this war against you,” the message was quoted as saying. Terror analysts were quoted as saying that it is not yet determined how serious a threat the list may pose in the US and elsewhere. “This group has released several ‘kill lists’ in the past and so far there’s been no confirmed incident of someone on the list being directly targeted or attacked,” the source said.
The UCC released a video on March 16 saying its leader, Osed Agha, had been killed in a US airstrike. The video threatened retaliation for his death. (PTI)