ISIS is calling for new wave of attacks on N.Y. Jewish Museum over Kurdish exhibit

Security measures at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan were ramped up after Islamic State audio recordings called on followers to carry out attacks there because of a Kurdish exhibit scheduled to open on Monday, NBC News New York reported a day earlier.

The report said that while the threats are “unsubstantiated and there is no known plot,” the New York Police Department has deployed extra forces as a precautionary measure.

Officers and police dogs were spotted outside the complex on Sunday night and additional security personnel was expected on Monday.

Kurdish forces are fighting Islamic State in Iraq as well as Syria, where the Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces have captured large swathes of land from the extremists in the past year under the cover of intense airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition.

Iraq’s Kurds made headlines in the past weeks when voters in the region overwhelmingly backed independence last Monday in a referendum banned by the central government in Baghdad.

While neighboring countries and world powers alike have come out against the referendum, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has openly backed the vote, making him the only leader to endorse an independent Kurdistan.

Source: Haaretz