A video reportedly released by the Islamic State (ISIS) on Monday features militants from China’s Uighur ethnic minority threatening to return home to “shed blood like rivers.”
That’s according to analysis by U.S.-based jihadist-tracking firm SITE Intelligence Group, which examined the footage, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Moments before executing an alleged informant, a Uighur militant reportedly issues ISIS’s first direct threat against China. According to SITE’s translation, the fighter said, “We will come to you to clarify to you with the tongues of our weapons, to shed blood like rivers and avenging the oppressed.”
China has long attributed violent attacks in the provincial-level autonomous region of Xinjiang to exiled Uighur “separatists” and warned of their possible collaboration with overseas jihadist groups. Many ethnic minority Uighurs — who are traditionally Muslim — have reported suffering cultural and religious persecution by China.
Read More: Uighur Extremists Joining ISIS Poses a Security and Economic Headache for China’s Xi Jinping
Michael Clarke, a Xinjiang expert at Australian National University, told AFP that the video showed China is now “very firmly a target of jihadist rhetoric.”
“It is the first time that Uighur-speaking militants have claimed allegiance to ISIS,” he said.
[AFP]
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics
- Melinda French Gates Is Going It Alone
- What to Do if You Can’t Afford Your Medications
- How to Buy Groceries Without Breaking the Bank
- Sienna Miller Is the Reason to Watch Horizon
- Why So Many Bitcoin Mining Companies Are Pivoting to AI
- The 15 Best Movies to Watch on a Plane
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
Write to Joseph Hincks at joseph.hincks@time.com