Terrorist Jihad al-Shamie pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a phone call to police during the course of last week’s Synagogue attack, counter-terror officers have now revealed.
The glacial drip of revelations about the Manchester Synagogue attack continues to be released by police, including information they had in the very first minutes of their investigation last week. Specialist counter terrorism police revealed on Wednesday that 35-year-old Syrian migrant Jihad al-Shamie had spoken to a police telephone operator in a call while the attack was actually underway, boasted he’d “killed two Jews in the name of the Islamic State”.
This telephone call took place after al-Shamie had approached the Heaton Park synagogue, been told to go away by worshippers and volunteer guards, returned with a car to run over pedestrians, and then disembarked to continue the attack with a knife. Worshippers barricaded the door of the Synagogue, and al-Shamie was found trying to stab his way through a window by police when they turned up seven minutes after the attack began.
Al-Shamie was shot dead at the scene, as was a member of the local Jewish community, who was killed by a bullet meant for the terrorist but which penetrated the front door of the building.
So far, Police say they believe “influenced by extreme Islamist ideology” but have stopped short of definitely declaring the ideology behind the attack or, indeed, definitely calling it a terror attack. Counter terrorism police said on Wednesday: “We are continuing to investigate the full circumstances and motivation behind what happened. The investigation is continuing at pace.”
In the first hours and days after the attack, as Jihad al-Shamie’s name was made public, authorities said he was not known to police. While this had subsequently been shown to be quite false, more details continue to slowly emerge about the background of al-Shamie. The Daily Telegraph reveals the number of known wives al-Shamie had is now up to three, with a teenage girlfriend understood to have been involved as well.
These marriages took place despite bigamy being illegal in the United Kingdom. All participants are thought to be adherents of the Islamic faith, and two of the wives are understood to be white converts to Islam. One of the wives has been arrested on suspicion of terror offences since last week’s attack.
Al-Shamie’s first wife had three children by him, it is stated. Another stated that he’d raped her “multiple times”, and said he’d explained he felt entitled to keep “up to four wives” under Islamic law.
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