Six people injured in petrol bomb and flamethrower attack at Colorado pro-Israel rally
Six people were injured in a ‘targeted terror attack’ when a man used a makeshift flamethrower to set fire to attendees at an event in Colorado calling for the release of Israeli hostages.
The suspect, identified as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, yelled ‘Free Palestine’ at an outdoor mall in Boulder, where the group had gathered to raise attention to hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The suspect was taken into custody and the FBI has said although no charges were immediately announced, but officials said they expect to hold him ‘fully accountable’.
Injuries ranged from serious to minor, while the ages of the victims ranged from 67 to 88.
The suspect was also injured and was taken to the hospital to be treated, but authorities did not elaborate on the nature of his injuries.
Video from the scene showed a witness shouting, ‘He’s right there. He’s throwing Molotov cocktails,’ as a police officer with his gun drawn advanced on a bare-chested suspect with containers in each hand.
FBI leaders in Washington said they were treating the Boulder attack as an act of terrorism, and the Justice Department, which leads investigations into acts of violence driven by religious, racial or ethnic motivations, decried the attack as a ‘needless act of violence, which follows recent attacks against Jewish Americans’.
FBI deputy director Dan Bongino said in a post on X: ‘This act of terror is being investigated as an act of ideologically motivated violence based on the early information, the evidence, and witness accounts. We will speak clearly on these incidents when the facts warrant it.’
The attack occurred more than a week after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington by a Chicago man who yelled: ‘I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza’ as he was being led away by police.
Israel’s war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others.
They are still holding 58 hostages, around a third believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s military campaign has killed over 54,000 people in Hamas-run Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants.
The offensive has destroyed vast areas, displaced around 90% of the population and left people almost completely reliant on international aid.
Police in Boulder were more circumspect about a motive for the fire attack.
Police Chief Steve Redfearn said it ‘would be irresponsible for me to speculate’ while witnesses were still being interviewed.
However, he noted that the group that had gathered in support of the hostages had assembled peacefully and that injuries of the victims were consistent with them having been set on fire.
Multiple blocks of the pedestrian mall area were evacuated by police.
The scene shortly after the attack was tense, as law enforcement agents with a police dog walked through the streets looking for threats and instructed the public to stay clear of the pedestrian mall.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis said in a statement that he was ‘closely monitoring’ the situation, adding that ‘hate-filled acts of any kind are unacceptable’.
***
metro
