July 17, 2015 — New York, New York
AJC mourns with our nation the killing of four unarmed U.S. Marines, who were murdered in cold blood in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by an assailant apparently inspired by radical Islam. Thomas J. Sullivan was one of the Marines killed, and the other victims are expected to be identified soon.
The shooter, Mohammod Youssef Abdulazeez, a naturalized American citizen from Kuwait, was killed by law enforcement after he struck two military sites. The attack at the Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Center in Chattanooga, left the four Marines dead, after the shooting at an Armed Forces Recruiting Center. Three were wounded in the twin attacks. The attacks came after Islamic State recently called again on its followers to target American military personnel and others in the U.S.
"Chattanooga tragically is not the first time terrorists inspired by a twisted, hateful, violent Islamist ideology have targeted and killed American military on U.S. soil," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "Constant vigilance, of course, remains absolutely essential in seeking to prevent such heinous attacks and apprehending anyone who threatens Americans before they strike. So, too, is total clarity in identifying the common denominator of these terrorist assaults, which, whether perpetrated by networks or lone wolves, are motivated by a connected worldview.”
Federal authorities have declared that they are treating the Chattanooga attacks as "domestic terrorism."
