Targets include Johannesburg, Cape Town
shopping centers
U.S. issued less specific terror warning in September
The U.S. State
Department has warned that terror groups are planning attacks in South Africa’s
biggest cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg, possibly during the upcoming
month of Ramadan.
Targets include
upscale shopping malls and places popular with U.S. citizens, the State
Department said in a statement on its website. Brian Dube, a spokesman for
South Africa’s Department of State Security, didn’t immediately return a
message seeking comment left on his mobile phone. Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo, a
spokesman for the South African Police Service, declined to comment.
“The U.S.
Government has received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry
out near-term attacks,” the State Department said. “This information comes
against the backdrop of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s public call
for its adherents to carry out terrorist attacks globally” during Ramadan.
The U.S.
previously warned in September that extremists may be targeting American
government and business interests in South Africa. Given its lack of military
involvement in the Middle East, the country isn’t often linked with Islamic
terror. The month of Ramadan begins Sunday.
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