MINNESOTA- On February 21st, Somali Terrorist group Al-Shabaab called for an attack on the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Al-Shabaab is a terrorist group that posted a video in the mall explaining how they had also threatened different malls either in America or close to America, such as the West Edmonton Mall in Canada. In the video, they also described their success with bombings and attacks in other malls in Kenya and Uganda. The threats only started to appear again after the U.S. killed the group’s leader, however, Al-Shabaab has since made a replacement.

 The video showed pictures and small clips of Al-Shabaab in their group marching around their streets and their hometowns suspiciously dressed and showing many other bombing damages they caused. The man in the photo, who was the narrator of this threatening video, explained how Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for other mall attacks which resulted in a total of 40 to 60 people dead, like the one in Kenya.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said that the FBI is on a careful watch and that if people are going to go shopping, they should be cautious but not afraid (CNN news).  It was also acknowledged that in the threatened malls the security has been doubled. Since The Mall of America is one of the largest malls in the U.S., any threat is going to be taken seriously.

 Many shoppers do not fear. Nancy Cashion and her daughter, Melanie Isabell, told the USA Today Newspaper that “they were in the mall 45 minutes before seeing a uniformed security officer. They were unconcerned by the video threat” (USA Today).

Photo Courtesy of Fox News.