The Atlantic

An Attack From the ISIS Playbook

The London attack seems to fit with a pattern of growing attacks on Muslims—both in Europe and in the United States.
Source: Hannah Mckay / Reuters

The attack was right out of the ISIS playbook. The attacker was a man, apparently acting alone. He took as his weapon a simple van, ramming it into people in an attempt to kill them. And he obeyed the command from ISIS spokesman Abi al-Hassan al-Muhajer to strike civilian targets in the West during the holy month of Ramadan.

There was one crucial difference, of course: The attacker was trying to kill Muslims—as ISIS itself does when it targets Shia mosques—ramming a van into a crowd leaving a London mosque after iftar on Sunday.

He reportedly shouted, “I want to kill A local imam protected the attacker after congregants subdued him;

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