Berliner Tageblatt - Suspect faces US hate charges after fire attack on Jewish protest

Mohammed Sabry Soliman is alleged to have thrown fire bombs and sprayed burning gasoline at a group of people who had gathered on Sunday in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Twelve people were hurt in the attack in the city of Boulder, police said, two of them seriously. Most of those taken to the hospital have now been discharged.

J. Bishop Grewell, acting US Attorney for the District of Colorado, told reporters the 45-year-old suspect had been planning the attack for a year.

Soliman threw "Molotov cocktails at a group of men and women, some of them in their late 80s, burning them as they peacefully walked on a Sunday to draw attention to Israeli hostages held in Gaza," he said.

"When he was interviewed about the attack, he said he wanted them all to die. He had no regrets, and he would go back and do it again."

Soliman told investigators he had previously tried to buy a gun, but had been thwarted because he was not a US citizen.

Police who rushed to the scene of the attack found 16 unused Molotov cocktails and a backpack weed sprayer containing gasoline that investigators say he had intended to use as a makeshift flamethrower.

Soliman faces federal hate crime charges that could result in a life sentence, as well as state charges for attempted murder that could carry hundreds of years prison time.

US Homeland Security officials said Soliman was in the country illegally, having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022.

Trump lashed out at his predecessor, Joe Biden, over the incident.

"Yesterday's horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America," Trump said on his Truth Social network, describing it as a "terrible tragedy."

He blamed "Biden's ridiculous Open Border Policy" for allowing Soliman into the country.

"This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland," he wrote.

His Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, vowed to hunt down people who wreak havoc.

"All terrorists, their family members, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump Administration we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you," he wrote on social media.

- Bystander Video -

The attack occurred on Sunday afternoon during a regular demonstration in support of hostages taken in the assault on Israel by Hamas gunmen on October 7, 2023.

In one video that purportedly shows the attack, a shirtless man holding bottles in his hands is seen pacing as the grass in front of him burns.

He can be heard screaming "End Zionists!" and "They are killers!" towards several people in red T-shirts as they tend to a person lying on the ground.

Other images showed billowing black smoke.

In another video, a police officer rushes to arrest the same man, who is lying on the grass. Several people are milling around nearby.

Witness Brian Horowitz told CNN he had rushed towards the scene to see if he could help.

"The attacker was yelling things like: 'You effing Zionists. Kill my people. I kill you' at 20 different people," he said.

"He was saying: 'You're a killer. You're a killer,' making eye contact with me, telling me that I was a killer and he'll kill us."

Sunday's attack occurred during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

It comes almost two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect, who shouted "Free Palestine," was arrested.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon voiced outrage.

"Terrorism against Jews does not stop at the Gaza border -- it is already burning the streets of America," he said.

F.Müller--BTB