Law enforcement agencies are cautioning that ISIS sympathizers could target the New York City Marathon this coming weekend after the killing of the terror group’s founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The FBI, NYPD and Homeland Security issued a joint threat assessment late last week, before Baghdadi was killed in northwest Syria, for the upcoming event in New York City.
The assessment mentioned the terror group by name and detailed how ISIS agents have been recently urging low-tech, low-preparation attacks in New York, ABC News reported, such as stabbing spectators on the street and running over people with vehicles.
Sunday’s marathon is expected to attract more than 50,000 runners and countless onlookers.
The FBI is currently investigating more than 1,000 ISIS-sympathizer suspects in the U.S. alone.
Despite Baghdadi’s death last weekend in a raid by American forces, authorities have warned that the militant group still remains a threat, including in the U.S., and that the jihadist message is likely to live on even with the death of Baghdadi.
It is that global reach that makes ISIS a continuing concern for U.S. officials.
Baghdadi has served as the inspiration for extremists in the United States, where multiple attackers in the last several years have carried out deadly acts of violence in his name.
Omar Mateen, who in 2016 gunned down 49 people inside an Orlando, Fla. nightclub, pledged allegiance to Baghdadi during a 911 call in which he called himself an Islamic soldier.
Months earlier, Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband killed 14 people at a San Bernardino, Calif. party, went on Facebook after her massacre was already underway to state her support for Baghdadi.
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