Suspect in Colorado fire attack on Israeli hostage advocates charged with federal hate crime
A man who law enforcement officials say used a 'makeshift flamethrower' to injure eight people in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday marching for the release of Hamas-held Israeli hostages has been charged with a federal hate crime.
According to an FBI affidavit released Monday, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian national, shouted 'free Palestine' and threw 'two lit Molotov cocktails at individuals' participating in a weekly Run for Their Lives event around 2 p.m. local time at Boulder's Pearl Street Mall. The weekly event's purpose is to demand the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and during Israel's ongoing, retaliatory bombing campaign.
Eight people were hospitalized with burns and other injuries from the attack, with two of them in serious condition, officials said Sunday.
After Soliman was detained, law enforcement officials found a nearby plastic container with 'fourteen unlit Molotov cocktails,' the FBI stated in its arrest warrant application. While in custody, Soliman 'stated that he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead. [Soliman] stated he would do it (conduct an attack) again.'
The affidavit continued:
He specifically targeted the 'Zionist Group' that had gathered in Boulder having learned about the group from an online search. SOLIMAN knew that they planned to meet today, Sunday, June 1 at 1pm. He arrived at approximately 12:55 p.m. and waited for them. Throughout the interview, SOLIMAN stated that he hated the Zionist group and did this because he hated this group and needed to stop them from taking over 'our land,' which he explained to be Palestine. He stated that he had been planning the attack for a year and was waiting until after his daughter graduated to conduct the attack.
Soliman entered the U.S. in August 2022 on B2 visa (a temporary visitor visa for non-business–related activities) that expired in February 2023, said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
'The Colorado Terrorist attack suspect, Mohamed Soliman, is illegally in our country,' she said in a post on X. 'He filed for asylum in September 2022.'
'McLaughlin told NBC News the suspect's asylum claim was pending,' the outlet reported. 'While his visa had expired, he had not yet exhausted all legal routes to staying in the U.S.'
The attack occurred less than two weeks after a shooter killed two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and subsequently shouted 'free Palestine!'
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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Relying on a tribal militia or clan in Gaza may work in the short term. However, in the long term it is unlikely to achieve success. On June 5 reports confirmed that Israel has been arming and apparently supporting or working with an armed militias in Gaza. Some reports refer to this group as a 'gang.' Other reports describe the leader of the group, Yasser Abu Shabab, as a member of a large clan in southern Gaza. There may be more clans being activated or encouraged than just the one linked to Yasser Abu Shabab. Shabab is not his real name and his name is a nomme de guerre, meaning the full details about this group continue to be shrouded in some mystery. As the details are shrouded in some fog, it is hard to know if these groups will become an effective anti-Hamas movement. If the groups aregangs that are more well-known for looting and crimes in the past, rather than achieving much, then they will likely not be embraced by the average people. 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What does history tell us about the challenge that militaries or countries have in recruiting or arming tribes, mercenaries, militias or other types of paramilitary groups? In antiquity, it was not uncommon for tribes to play a role as auxiliaries alongside normal military formations. In addition, it was common that when countries were at war they would often bring along a cavalcade of smaller allies. For instance, when Hannibal was fighting Rome, he had to recruit people from Italy because the actual number of Carthaginians in his army began to decline over time. By the 15th and 16th century, mercenaries played a major role in fighting amongst the Italian city states. This was the era of Machiavelli, who wrote that mercenaries were often 'disunited, ambitious, [and] undisciplined.' However, mercenaries continued to be used by European states. The British employed Hessian mercenaries and others during the Revolutionary War. These groups generally did not prove effective. In addition, the British and other colonial powers often relied on alliances with tribes to help during wartime or to keep the peace on the frontier. For instance, at the battle of Isandlwana, the British army fighting the Zulus included a number of local native troops. The native troops of the Natal Native Contingent, for instance, included tribes that had fought the Zulus. Henan Cortes, during his conquest of the Aztec empire, allied with groups that had been suppressed by the Aztecs in the past. In the modern times, many countries have sought to work with tribes and militias. For instance, Lawrence of Arabia worked with tribes that were in revolt against the Ottoman Empire. During the Vietnam war, the US often worked with Montagnard fighters who opposed the Communists. The US also worked with the Hmong people in Laos. Later, during the US occupation in Iraq the US relied on a group called the Sons of Iraq or Sahweh, which were Sunni tribal militias. 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Relying on a tribal militia or clan in Gaza may work in the short term. However, in the long term it is unlikely to achieve success. The theory that Israeli soldiers' lives will be saved via this alliance is not necessarily proven by history. Usually, when states think they can provide guns to tribes or militias as a short-term fix, they find out later that they are drawn into more complex wars. For instance, the spillover from the Rwandan genocide has led to fighting in eastern Congo for thirty years. Has the use of proxies and tribes and militias there helped Rwanda or Congo or anyone else in the long term? Probably not. The same can be said for Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia or many other states teetering on failure and civil war. A long civil war in Gaza will likely harm Israel in the long term.
