ISIS has called for its supporters to attack the World Cup, which begins on June 14 in Moscow, in online propaganda, The Daily Mail reports.
A French group with ties to ISIS released one poster showing a knife cutting the World Cup symbol, a trophy, in a front of a red-tinted picture of a stadium. ISIS groups previously released similar posters threatening the event, many specifically addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin. In April, ISIS released a poster stating: "Putin, you disbeliever, you will pay the price for killing Muslims," in front of a picture of a man holding a machine gun with a packed stadium in the background.
In March, ISIS supporters targeted Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi, releasing a poster showing him on his knees in Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow with a masked man holding his head, with the message: "So strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.”
Last year, ISIS supporters released a poster showing Messi crying blood with the message: "You are fighting a state that does not have failure in its dictionary."
In December of 2017, ISIS took responsibility for an attack on a supermarket in St. Petersburg, Russia, in which 18 people were injured.