ISIS Details Devastation of California Wildfires in Caliphate Newsletter

The Islamic State included a report on the California wildfires in the news briefs section of their weekly newsletter, noting the property damage estimates and death toll of blazes that were the "worst in the history" of the state.

ISIS, which has encouraged followers to try arson as a terror tactic, did not take credit for starting any of the blazes.

"Strong winds hindered the efforts" in fighting the blazes, the terror group noted in al-Naba, a 16-page color newsletter distributed within ISIS territory and online as a PDF, while citing California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as saying some bodies had been burned beyond recognition and would be difficult to identify. "Thousands of people became homeless," ISIS said, adding stats from earlier in the week on "the most destructive fire in the history of the state."

This past January, ISIS' Rumiyah magazine -- which is published in multiple languages including English -- stressed to would-be jihadists that "incendiary attacks have played a significant role in modern and guerrilla warfare, as well as in 'lone wolf' terrorism," claiming a November fire at a furniture factory in Losino-Petrovsky, Russia, and highlighting scores of wildfires around Israel that month as incidents that "demonstrated the lethality of such an effortless operation."

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