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(Bloomberg) — 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.
U.S. warns Islamist militants planning attacks in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG, June 4 (Reuters) – The United States warned its citizens on Saturday of possible attacks by Islamist militants on U.S. facilities or shopping malls in South Africa during the upcoming month of Ramadan, but the South African government said the country was safe.
It was the second such warning in under a year from the embassy, which issued a similar alert in September in a country that has a significant expatriate and tourist population but has seldom been associated with Islamist militancy.
The U.S. embassy said up-market shopping areas and malls in the commercial hub of Johannesburg and Cape Town, widely regarded as South Africa’s tourism capital, were the main target areas in the suspected planned attacks.
“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 the upcoming month of Ramadan,” it said in a statement posted on its website. http://1.usa.gov/1UkdY8R
Last month, a new message purporting to come from the spokesman of Islamic State called on followers to launch attacks on the West during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins in early June.
South Africa’s foreign affairs department said the country’s security agencies were capable of ensuring the safety of its residents, noting that no incident or attack had taken place after the previous warning by the U.S. embassy last year.
“The state security agency and other security agencies in this country are very much capable of keeping South Africa safe and everybody in this country, including Americans,” foreign affair’s ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said.
“The last time they did this, towards the end of last year, nothing came out of that advisory,” he added.
South African police were not available to comment.
Following a similar warning in 2009, the U.S. closed its embassy and consulates in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town for several days.
On Saturday, the embassy said it would remain open.
“This will not affect operations at the U.S. embassy Pretoria or our Consulates in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban,” U.S. embassy spokeswoman Cynthia Harvey said.
“We are cooperating with local authorities, as we do in any investigation into terrorist threats around the world.”