Al-Qaeda Supporters Launch Twitter Campaign, Urge Muslims To Carry Out Attacks Inside U.S.

On April 1, 2016, an Al-Qaeda supporter on Twitter named Abu Abd Al-Kareem Al-Gharbi launched a campaign titled "America, the Head of the Snake" in which he urged participants to post anti-U.S. content and called on Muslims living in the U.S. to carry out lone wolf attacks.

Under the hashtag "America, the Head of the Snake," Al-Gharbi announced that Sheikh Omar Al-Rahal is the campaign coordinator. Al-Gharbi stated that the goal of this campaign was "to renew the spirit of jihad in the Ummah." He also urged participants to post tweets and disseminate jihadi clips and materials to encourage Muslims to wage jihad against the U.S. and to refute counter-jihad arguments.

Participants in the hashtag campaign, most of them supporters of Al-Qaeda, have posted hundreds of tweets, images, and videos condemning the U.S. and have accused it of killing Muslims, supporting tyrants, and waging war against Islam. While most of the images show dead bodies of children who could have been killed in drone strikes, the videos, produced mostly by the Al-Qaeda media wing Al-Sahab and Al-Qaeda Yemen's media wing Al-Malahim, focused on why the U.S. is a legitimate target, and encouraged lone wolf-style attacks.