TerrorismBrazilian Jihadist group pledges allegiance to ISIS on eve of Olympic Games

A Brazilian Jihadist group called Ansar al-Khilafah, has pledged allegiance to ISIS less than a month before the opening of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist and Islamist organizations, reports that a channel on the Telegram messaging app — called Ansar al-Khilafah #Brazil — has posted a message of support for ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Portuguese and Spanish versions of ISIS’s Nashir Telegram channel have also been launched. 

The International Business Times reports that it is the first pledge of allegiance to ISIS to come from South America.

The campaign by the U.S.-led coalition have inflicted heavy losses on ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and the organization has lost 40 to 45 percent of the territory under its control. 

Experts say that ISIS is likely to continue, even intensify, its attacks in the West if it is driven underground. 

“These guys have all the energy and unpredictability of a populist movement,” said former CIA director Michael Hayden. 

ISIS leaders have admitted their losses, but one leader, speaking with a Western reporter on condition of anonymity, argue that the organization and its followers “have been able to expand and have shifted some of our command, media and wealth structure to different countries.”

“We do have, every day, people reaching out and telling us they want to come to the caliphate,” saidthe operative in an interview with the Independent. 

“But we tell them to stay in their countries and rather wait to do something there.”

More than 500,000 tourists are expected to arrive in Brazil for the Olympic Games.