CALL TO ARMS
Vienna shooting: ISIS gunman ‘sent Charlie Hebdo massacre vid to accomplices’ hours before slaughtering 4
AN ISIS gunman who killed four people in a rampage through Vienna sent videos of the Charlie Hebdo massacre to suspected accomplices.
It is claimed convicted jihadi Kujtim Fejzulai sent the sick video to two unnamed associates as cops are reportedly investigating whether this may have been a call to arms.
⚠️ Follow the latest updates on the Vienna shooting here
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Fejzulai sent clips of the 2015 slaughter, which saw 12 journalists killed by two jihadis at the French magazine's office in Paris, before launching his own attack in Vienna, Austria.
Armed with an assault rifle, a handgun and a machete, he prowled through the streets and killed two women and two men near a synagogue.
Some 22 people were also injured in the attack, including a cop who was left in a life-threatening condition.
Police arrived within nine minutes and shot him dead, but are now trying to untangle a web of potential accomplices.
At least 14 people have been arrested in 18 raids as more than 1,000 cops were deployed to probe the case.
Detectives are probing a now closed Instagram account which they consider "likely" to have belonged the attacker, reports .
The German daily also reported cops investigating the two recipients of the Charlie Hebdo video as part of the case.
What we know so far
- The attack was carried out in six locations across Vienna's city centre
- Four dead - two women and two men
- 22 injured - six are fighting for life and a police officer who was injured is in stable condition
- One gunman shot dead as interior minister believes there is no indication of another attacker
- Dead gunman named as ISIS supporter Kujtim Fejzulai - who had previously been jailed for trying to go to Syria
- Fejzulai reportedly announced the attack on Instagram and had previously been jailed for trying to go Syria
- Two Turkish MMA fighters carried a woman and an injured cop to safety
The Charlie Hebdo link comes as the magazine has become the centre of fury once again after it republished controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Depictions of the Prophet Mohammed are offensive to Muslims, and ISIS just days ago called for a fresh wave of attacks amid the row.
ISIS urged jihadis to “spill the blood of Crusaders” in “revenge” for cartoons in an "incendiary campaign".
It comes after there have been two beheadings in France - with an attack in a teacher in Paris and a church in Nice.
Muslim nations have also called for a boycott of French goods and mass protests have swept many cities, with much ire targeted at French president Emmanual Macron.
Macron has defended the cartoons as a matter of principle, and today against decried the Vienna attack as "yet another vile act of terrorism".
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The picture is starting to emerge of Fejzulai, a 20-year-old who held dual citizenship in Austria and North Macedonia.
It emerged he was well known to security services, having previously been jailed after travelling to the Middle East to join ISIS.
Interior minister Karl Nehammer confirmed Fejzulai was an "ISIS sympathiser" and he had been released early from prison due to his young age.
The minister said Fejzulai had attended a de-radicalisation programme, but that "despite all the outward signs that he was integrating into society, the assailant apparently did exactly the opposite"
Nehammer added the fact he managed "deceive the judicial system's deradicalization program to secure his release" should the system needs to be re-evaluated.
Before the attack, Fejzulai is reported to have posted on Instagram showing himself armed with an assault rifle, a handgun and a machete.
He also pledged allegiance to ISIS leader "The Professor" Abdullah Qardash, who was appointed after the US killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
And he is said to have posted pictures of bullets and declared the ISIS "remains and is expanding" - a popular phrase among supporters of the group since its collapse as a state in the Middle East.
reported he was in prison for just seven and a half months - less than half of his 22 month sentence - after being caught trying to join ISIS in 2019.
It reported he became radicalised as a teenager as he dealt with problems at school and at home, with his family not being strictly religious.
He is reported to have become a member of a mosque which was already being monitored by security services.
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Fejzulai is reported to have admitted he had "got into the wrong mosque" when he appeared before a judge in 2019.
"I wanted to get away from home. I expected a better life. My own apartment, my own income," he said.
He had reportedly saved up cash through a summer job in 2018 to buy a ticket to Kabul, Afghanistan, to meet up with ISIS fighters.
He then reportedly spent two days in a "rat hole" with "no shower, not toilet, no running water" before being found by cops and detained in Turkey before being extradited to Austria.
Fejzulai's lawyer in the 2019 case, Nikolaus Rast, had told the court he had denounced ISIS and compared going to the radical mosque to going to "Kung Fu school".
He told the court: "How can I change the ideology of a suicide bomber? Not with high fines.
"You have to change your mind."
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Following the attack, Rast told public broadcaster ORF that his client had seemed completely harmless at the time.
"He was a young man who was searching for his place in society, who apparently went to the wrong mosque, ended up in the wrong circles," he said.
"Fejzulai's family wasn't strictly religious at all; the family wasn't radical it was a completely normal family.
"I still remember that the family couldn't believe what had happened with their son."
Fejzulai was being monitored by the security services, but was not deemed to be a domestic terror threat.
Falter reported he was one of 90 Austrian Islamists who wanted to travel to Syria - and is believed to have tried to go to the Middle East as recently as July.
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Describing the assault as a terrorist attack, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in a televised address: "This is not a conflict between Christians and Muslims or between Austrians and migrants.
"No, this is a fight between the many people who believe in peace and the few (who oppose it). It is a fight between civilisation and barbarism."
Authorities had previously said they could not rule out the possibility that other shooters were still on the loose and asked people to avoid the city centre.
Kurz said the army would protect sites in the capital so the police could focus on anti-terror operations.
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He described the attacks as "very well equipped with automatic weapons" and had "prepared professionally".
An elderly man and woman, a young passer-by and a waitress were killed in the attack as the gunman assaulted bars as drinkers enjoyed a final night out before a partial lockdown is imposed on Vienna.
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French president Macron said: "We share the shock and grief of the Austrian people struck this evening by an attack in the heart of their capital.
"This is our Europe. Our enemies must know who they are dealing with. We will not give up."
Hero Turkish MMA fighters wounded by ISIS gunman after carrying elderly woman and injured cop to safety during Vienna shooting
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