DR ALMANI Islamic State jihadis have circulated a chilling warning of attacks on Christmas markets

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Mocked-up images of a menacing hooded figure lurking behind Father Christmas have been circulated on ISIS-supporting messaging groups. One, showing London’s Regent Street in the background, comes with the ominous caption “Soon on your holidays” in English, French and German, the Epoch Times reports. Another shows a Christmas market in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower in the distance. The sick messages were intercepted by BlackOps Cyber, an internet intelligence agency. According to images provided by the company, it was shared at about midday on Thursday on a messaging group called Army of Mujahideen, which has at least 1,800 members.

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The image was designed by a member calling himself Dr Almani, which itself could be a reference to a banned Twitter account whose bio said he was an “explosives warehouse official”. Earlier this week six men, all of whom are originally from Syria, were arrested in Germany in connection with a suspected plot to attack a Christmas market. Last year an ISIS-inspired terrorist killed 12 people after driving a lorry through a festive market in Breitscheidplatz in Berlin. This week Express.co.uk reported that hundreds of ISIS fighters, after fleeing Syria are heading to the UK and Europe to mount a series of Christmas attacks.

The plots are suspected to have been hatched in retaliation to the group’s humbling defeat in its former stronghold, in the Syrian city of Raqqa. A warning of the attack from Turkish intelligence officers follows concerns that the head of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, escaped Raqqa with thousands of armed extremist fighters – including many British jihadis – in a secret peace deal five weeks ago. A British military source, who attended the briefing, said this weekend that it left no room for doubt.

GETTY A member of US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces remove an ISIS flag as fighters advance through Syria

GETTY Then-French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron lays flowers at a memorial to the Berlin attack