Jamaica ISIS attacks

US General warns of possible Jamaica ISIS attacks

Jamaica and other Caribbean countries have once again been placed on high alert after US General John Kelly warned for the second time of potential ISIS terrorist attacks in the region.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon on Friday, Kelly warned that there has been a shift in the rhetoric of radical leaders away from joining the fight in the Middle East and toward carrying out attacks on a local level. Kelly presents the thinking of such radicals saying, ‘Rather than coming here to Syria, why don’t you just stay at home and do San Bernardino or do Boston or do Fort Hood?’ Kelly believes that these attacks on American soil could soon spread across the Caribbean.

According to Kelly, approximately 150 Caribbean nationals left the region to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the Middle East last year, an increase of around 50 over the previous year. In his initial warning last year, Kelly said that the terrorists returning to the Caribbean, come back more deeply radicalized and with new destructive skills.

Whether these radicals have never left or have returned with new skills, Kelly believes the situation is a serious one.

“Even just a few of these nuts can cause an awful lot of trouble down in the Caribbean because they [Caribbean nations] don’t have an FBI, they don’t have law enforcement like we do. And many of these countries have very, very small militaries – if they have militaries at all,” he said on Friday. In his previous warning, Kelly singled out Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela as being vulnerable to this threat.