Social Media Reveals New Al Qaeda Threat to Target U.S. Naval Fleet and 'Make Your Worst Nightmares Come True

Al Qaeda's new offshoot in India issued a direct threat to the United States on Friday, vowing that as long as the U.S. continues its "war against Islam" and support of Israel, people like Nidal Hasan will "continue to emerge from your ranks" to "make your worst nightmares come true."

"As long as you continue to wage your war against Islam, and persist in your support of the Zionist Israeli state and for the apostate regimes that have been imposed by force on the Muslim masses, obedient slaves of their Lord, like Major Nidal Hasan and these officers of the Pakistan Navy will continue to emerge from your ranks and the ranks of your allies to make your worst nightmares come true," said the statement from Osama Mahmood, a spokesman for the Al Qaeda in the Subcontinent group. Hasan was the U.S. Army officer convicted in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood.

The warning came on the heels of the terror group's attack on the Pakistani navy, which Al Qaeda claims was misrepresented and downplayed by Pakistan. The terror group said that Pakistan’s clandestine agency and army were "trying to cover the nature and actual targets of the operation" by announcing that Al Qaeda meant to take out Pakistani naval ships docked in Karachi. Al Qaeda asserts it was attempting to hijack a Pakistani navy frigate in order to attack a U.S. Navy fleet in the Indian Ocean. The attack was ultimately thwarted in its final hours by the Pakistani military.

An F/A-18C Hornet coming from Iraq lands on the flight deck of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, Aug. 10, 2014 in the Persian Gulf. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)

"In an attempt to conceal the failure of their pro-American policies and mislead the world, the attack was presented ... as an attack solely on the Pakistan navy," the statement said. "The reality is that the real target of the operation was the American naval fleet in the Indian Ocean, which was to be targeted using Pakistani warships."

The two-page edict, titled, "Operation against the American Navy by the Mujahadeen," was obtained by TheBlaze through two Twitter accounts, one associated with the Islamic State and another believed to be related to the new Al Qaeda offshoot Khorasan in Syria. Sources familiar with Al Qaeda propaganda and media said it appears to be a legitimate document.

"It is because of their naval strength that America and its allies have been able to impose a military and economic stranglehold on the Muslim world," the statement says. "America's naval-military capability represents the backbone of its global empire of oppression. Using its seven naval commands, America rules the seas and oceans of the world ... . It is from American naval bases that fighter jets take off to rain death and destruction on the oppressed peoples of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq and other Muslim countries."

Without responding directly to the statement, a U.S. Navy official told TheBlaze the Navy "will continue to operate forward to be ready and defeat adversaries in war with our full range of war-fighting capabilities to act and influence where it matter, when it matters."

A Defense Department similarly said the U.S. will "respond [to Al Qaeda] with action."

Among the reasons listed for Al Qaeda's targeting of the United States: that America considers Islam its primary enemy; that America is the "patron-in-chief of Israel; that America is responsible for Muslim poverty and oppression; and that America is responsible for the killing of Muslims throughout the Islamic world.

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