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Colorado authorities said early on Monday that at least 8 people were hurt, one critically, in a terror attack targeting pro-Israel demonstrators in Boulder after they were attacked with firebombs.
Police said a male suspect was taken into custody on Sunday after using a makeshift flamethrower and yelling “Free Palestine” into a group that had assembled to raise attention for Israeli hostages in Gaza.
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Pro-Israel demonstrators injured in firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado
(Video: Betar USA)
He was identified as a 45-year-old Egyptian national, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who was in the United States illegally after his visa expired.
FBI Director Kash Patel described the incident as a "targeted terror attack," and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said it appeared to be "a hate crime given the group that was targeted," and the Justice Department denounced it as a “needless act of violence, which follows recent attacks against Jewish Americans.”
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Suspect in attack on pro-Israel demonstrators in Colorado
(Video: via X)
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Aftermath of a firebombing attack on pro-Israel demonstrators in Colorado
(Photo: Betar USA)
A Holocaust survivor was among the injured. Brooke Coffman, a 19-year-old at the University of Colorado who witnessed the Boulder incident, said she saw four women lying or sitting on the ground with burns on their legs. One of them appeared to have been badly burned on most of her body and had been wrapped in a flag by someone, she said.
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She described seeing a man whom she presumed to be the attacker standing in the courtyard, shirtless, holding a glass bottle of clear liquid and shouting. "Everybody is yelling, 'get water, get water,'" Coffman said.
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Police at the scene of a terror attack targeting pro-Israel demonstrators in Colorado
(Photo: Chet Strange /Getty Images)
Lynn Segal, 72, was among about 20 people who gathered Sunday. They had finished their march in front of the courthouse when a “rope of fire” shot in front of her and then “two big flares.” She said the scene quickly turned chaotic as people worked to find water to put out flames and find help. “There were people who were burning, I wanted to help,” she said. “But I didn’t want to be associated with the perpetrator.”
Authorities said they believe that he acted alone and that no other suspect was being sought. No criminal charges were immediately announced but officials said they would move to hold Soliman accountable. He was also injured and was taken to the hospital to be treated, but authorities didn’t elaborate on the nature of his injuries.