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HomeUncategorizedCopenhagen gunman vowed loyalty to ISIS on Facebook hours before shooting

Copenhagen gunman vowed loyalty to ISIS on Facebook hours before shooting

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Copenhagen-gunmanThe Danish gunman behind twin Copenhagen shootings that left two killed and five injured, had in a Facebook post pledged allegiance to the extremist group Islamic State’s Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the CNN reported Monday.

The shooter, who has been identified as Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, made the Facebook post on February 14, just hours before staging the shootings at Krudttoenden cafe and later at Copenhagen`s main synagogue.

“I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr in full obedience in the good and bad things. And I won’t dispute with him unless it is an outrageous disbelief,” the CNN quoted the gunman, citing his Facebook post made at 3:24 pm local time on Feb 14.

The gunman who was later killed by the cops at Noerrebro station in Copenhagen, is said to have a criminal past and was known to the police.

Speaking in a press conference, Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt said that the shooter was familiar to the police for a violent past, and had links to criminal gangs. However, she said that it was yet to be ascertained if the suspect was linked to a terror cell.

Meanwhile, the Danish police have arrested two men suspected of helping the gunman.

The shooter first targeted Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks Just at a free speech event being held at Krudttoenden cafe, where he fired dozens of shots, killing a 55-year-old man.

Hours after the deadly attack at the cafe, another shooting incident was reported at a synagogue at Krystalgade.

The police have confirmed that the 68-year-old cartoonist was the target of the cafe attack.

Vilks had in 2007 drew controversial caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, including one depicting him as a dog and another with a bomb in his turban.

Vilks, who is used to getting death threats and counts on armed guards for his security, has reportedly said that the gunman might have been inspired by Charlie Hebdo attack in France that left 12 at the satirical weekly’s office dead.

The shooting incidents in Denmark come over a month after France was shaken by three days of terror attacks, including at French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo’s office and at a kosher supermarket store. The attack on Charlie Hebdo office for prophet cartoons sparked a wave of protests and re-ignited the sensitive debate over freedom of expression.

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