MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Two National Geographic Magazine reporters have been injured in a stabbing attack, carried out by a Muslim man in Gabon, the Telegraph newspaper reported Sunday.
Gabonese Defense Minister Etienne Massard has commented on the accident, saying that the assailant had been arrested at the scene of the incident and had indicated in his statements that the attack had been some kind of retribution for "US attacks against Muslims."
“In his first statements [he] said he acted in retaliation for US attacks against Muslims and America's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital," Massard said, as quoted by the newspaper.
According to the media outlet, two Danish nationals were stabbed while shopping in a tourist area of the country’s capital of Libreville. The attack was perpetrated by a 53-year-old Nigerien national, who shouted “Allahu Akbar” when stabbing the journalists.
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The media outlet added that the two reporters were taken to the hospital in Libreville.
The decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and instructions for the State Department to start preparations for the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, proclaimed by Donald Trump on December 6, has triggered a wave of discord from Muslim communities around the world, first of all in the Middle East.
In particular, reacting to the issue, representatives of 57 Muslim countries gathered in Istanbul for an extraordinary Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit on December 13, declaring East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine.
The current chairman of the organization, Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday reportedly expressed his readiness to appeal to the UN in a bid to try to cancel Washington's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, calling Israel a "terrorist state that kills children".
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