Islamic State threatens US election day ‘slaughter’

The Islamic State on Friday threatened a “slaughter” and “dreadful calamity” against the United States during Tuesday’s elections in an anti-democratic screed published by the group’s propaganda arm.

The English-language text published by the Al Hayat media center entitled “The Murtadd [apostate] vote” rails against American democracy and denounces American Muslims who take part in the electoral process.

Friday’s publication came as the Islamic State battled with Iraqi and Kurdish forces for control of Mosul, as troops pushed into the city following a two-weeks offensive. The jihadist group captured Iraq’s second largest city two years ago and separate forces of Iraqi regulars, Kurdish fighters and Shiite militias launched a campaign last month to retake the stronghold.

Iraqi special forces threw themselves back into battle Saturday after a first foray into Mosul was blunted by stiffer than expected resistance from jihadists defending the birthplace of their “caliphate.”

Rita Katz, head of the SITE intelligence group that published the document, said that the incitement to attacks on Election Day were “an attempt to disrupt the election process and gain media attention.”

1)Breaking: #ISIS special Hayat media doc calls for attacks on voters on #ElectionDay demands Muslims not participate in Democratic process pic.twitter.com/w2UKmsQIxo

— Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) November 5, 2016

“We denounce your democratic kufr [disbelief in Islam],” the jihadist group said Friday as counter-terrorism forces made their first real push into the streets of Mosul. “Indeed, we have come to slaughter you and smash your ballot boxes.”

Muslims who participate in democracy “while claiming to support ‘Islam'” are apostates, the group said, “whose blood is obligatory to spill unless he repents.”

“The blood of Crusader voters is even more deserving of being spilled than the blood of Crusader combatants,” the organization added, with particular emphasis on violence against women who go to the ballot in Tuesday’s much-anticipated presidential election.

Concerning the two presidential candidates, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the Islamic State said that the only differences between the two in terms of their policies vis-a-vis Muslims are that “Clinton is more skilled in ‘political correctness,’ giving her leverage in the sorcery of hypocrisy… and that Trump is impulsive and unpredictable.”

“May Allah make this year’s US presidential election a dreadful calamity like no other to have struck America throughout its pathetic history,” the article said in closing.

The essay was released the same day the FBI and New York Police Department said they are assessing the credibility of information they received of a possible al-Qaeda terror plot against the US on the eve of Election Day.

Officials said counterterrorism investigators are reviewing the information that mentioned New York, Texas and Virginia as potential target sites.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the intelligence came to investigators’ attention. An NYPD spokesman said in a statement that the information “lacks specificity.”

The FBI said it was working closely with law enforcement agencies and sharing intelligence reports.

AP contributed to this report.