Jihadist web forums lit up on Tuesday with anti-American radicals celebrating Monday’s terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon, which killed three and wounded at least 170.
According to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors the online web activities of radical Muslim groups and individuals, "jihadists expressed their joy and hoped the blasts are acts of jihadi terrorism."
"We ask Allah that this is the start before the storm," said one user on one Jihadist forum. "May Allah give you the glad tiding of Paradise for this joyous news."
Some forum users hoped a Jihadist group was behind the attacks. Others speculated that an American militia group was responsible.
SITE detailed more of the postings:
One forum member noted that over a week ago, a jihadist announced his desire to plan bombings in the United States, but was chastised by others for revealing such a plot publicly. He is referring to a posting on the Ansar al-Mujahideen forum on April 1 in which a jihadist tried to recruit members for an attack similar in impact to al-Qaeda's 9/11 strikes, but seemed focused on the attack being a suicide bombing. In other posts responding to the explosions, on the Ansar al-Mujahideen, al-Fida' and Shumukh al-Islam forums, jihadists gave pictures circulated in the media of the aftermath, showing injured people and a bloody sidewalk, and some hoped more bombings will follow.
Administrators of Shumukh al-Islam, a top-tier jihadist forum and primary source for official messages from al-Qaeda, placed a two scrolling messages atop the forum, the first stating: "Urgent // Casualties and Injuries in an Explosion that Shook the US State of Boston, and a State of Panic and Chaos Spreads Across America in General," and the second giving an oft-repeated statement from former al-Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden: "I swear by Allah the Great, who raised the sky without pillars, that America and those who live in America will not dream of security until we live it as a reality in Palestine and until all the disbelieving armies are expelled from the land of Muhammad, Allah's peace and prayer be upon him."
The Somali Jihadist group Al Shabbab mocked the victims of the bombing on Twitter and compared the attack to American military operations abroad.