'Terror' attack in Colorado targeted group of "Zionists'

Man reportedly shouted 'free Palestine' at shopping centre

- COLLEEN SLEVIN

A man accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and an incendiary device to attack a US group bringing attention to Israeli hostages in Gaza has been charged with a federal hate crime.

Mohammed Sabry Soliman, 45, told police he had planned it for a year and targeted what he described as a “Zionist group”, the FBI said.

Eight people were injured in the attack in Colorado, some with burns, as the group, called Run For Their Lives, was concluding a weekly demonstration to raise visibility for the hostages who remain in Gaza. Witnesses reported a man shouted “Free Palestine” during the attack.

An FBI affidavit said Soliman confessed to the attack after being taken into custody on Sunday and told police he would do it again. The affidavit was released in support of a federal hate crime charge filed by the Justice Department yesterday.

The burst of violence at the popular Pearl Street shopping centre, a four-block area in central Boulder, unfolded against the backdrop of the war between Israel and Hamas that continues to inflame global tensions and has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the US.

The attack happened on the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which is marked with the reading of the Torah, and barely a week after a man who also shouted “free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli embassy employees outside a Jewish museum in Washington.