Terror Group Behind Kenyan Shopping Massacre Threatens Edmonton’s Iconic Mall

Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab is calling on jihadis in the West to target North America's largest shopping center, the West Edmonton Mall.

The call to arms comes towards the end of a 76-minute video posted on YouTube that shows a masked man boasting about the group's 2013 machine gun and grenade attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, which left 67 dead and 175 wounded. The massacre's perpetrators said it was retaliation for Kenyan and Western intervention in Somalia.

"We call upon our Muslim brothers, particularly those in the West, to answer the call of Allah and target the disbelievers wherever they are," the man in the video says in accented English.

"If just a handful of Mujahadeen fighters could bring Kenya to a complete standstill for nearly a week, then imagine what a dedicated Mujaheddin in the West could do to the American or Jewish-owned shopping centers across the world. What if such an attack was to occur in the Mall of America in Minnesota or the West Edmonton Mall in Canada?"

The Edmonton mall, which attracts over 30 million visitors every year and, like the Mall of America, is owned by Canada's Ghermezian family who are of Iranian-Jewish origin, issued a press statement Sunday saying that it was "aware of the video" and would continue to "monitor events with the help of federal and local law enforcement agencies." The mall says it has also beefed up security and implemented "extra security precautions; some may be noticeable to guests, and others won't be."

Edmonton Police Services also issued a press release Sunday saying that they are working in concert with the RCMP and "other policing agencies and federal authorities" to investigate the video.

Al-Shabaab, which is Arabic for "The Youth," has close ties with Al-Qaeda and has already been labelled a terrorist organization and a "serious security threat to Canada" by CSIS. The intelligence agency cites a growing number of young Canadians being lured to Somalia for "terrorist training and to engage in violent jihad."

This isn't the first time that Al-Shabaab has called for attacks on Canadian soil. In 2011, the National Post reported the release of an audiotape recorded by an Al-Shabaab suicide bomber urging young Muslims to "do jihad in Canada" and not "just sit around and be a couch potato and just chill all day."

Edmonton Deputy Police Chief Brian Simpson insists that despite threatening tone of the Al-Shabaab video and the specific mention of the West Edmonton Mall, "there is no imminent threat to Edmonton, Canada, or its citizens."

U.S. officials are using slightly stronger language to describe the terror threat.

Homeland Security official Jeh C. Johnson told CNN on Sunday that those going to the Mall of America should be "particularly careful."