ISIS takes responsibility for harbour fire in Maldives island

Site Intelligence Group claims that ISIS has taken responsibility for Wednesday morning’s fire at the Mahibadhoo harbour.

Citing the Al Naba newsletter, the group’s director, Rita Katz said that “Islamic State fighters carried out the arson attack that destroyed five boats, including a police and ambulance unit” in Mahibadhoo island of Alif Dhaalu atoll.

The SITE director also shared a previous tweet, where ISIS supporters carrying out a stabbing attack of three foreigners in February this year. However, she noted that ISIS did not confirm this and that there is no proof linking them to the attack.

This attack was linked to ISIS after a video of a group of men, with their faces covered, taking responsibility for the attack, was posted online. This group claimed the attack was meant to hurt the country’s vital tourism industry and warned of more attacks were coming. However, they did not actually mention ISIS in the video.

Three people were arrested in relation to the attack, after police revealed that attack is believed to have been carried out by “suspected extremists”.

No official authorities in the Maldives has responded to this, and RaajjeMV was unable to contact the police at the time of publishing.

However, police at a press conference on Wednesday evening, said that the attacked appeared to be a terrorist attack.

SITE Intelligence Group is an American Non-Governmental Organization that tracks online activity of white supremacist and jihadist organizations.