Daughter of Colorado terror suspect said USA 'fundamentally changed me' in haunting post
Habiba Soliman, a top student who had only recently graduated high school, moved to the US from Kuwait with her family two years ago and quickly built a promising life near Colorado Springs
Just weeks before her father was accused of perpetrating a dreadful terror attack during a tranquil protest in Colorado, Mohamed Soliman's daughter had penned her thoughts about how America had "fundamentally changed" her, while she chased aspirations to become a medic in the nation that her father reportedly grew to despise, as reported by the News York Post.
Habiba Soliman, a high-flying student who had recently completed her A-levels, relocated from Kuwait to the United States with her relatives two years prior, where she swiftly established an impressive existence near Colorado Springs, highlighted in an effusive profile by the Denver Gazette.
The young academic, born in Egypt and brought up largely in Kuwait, was honoured with the Gazette's "Best and Brightest" scholarship dedicated for exceptional senior students. Her tale formerly emblematic of optimism and ambition has taken on a dire twist, placing her and her loved ones at the heart of an alarming national security predicament.
"Coming to the USA has fundamentally changed me," Habiba recorded in her scholarship submission. "I learned to adapt to new things even if it was hard. I learned to work under pressure and improve rapidly in a very short amount of time.Most crucially, I came to understand the constant support that family provides."
Her motivation to study medicine in the US was ignited by a deeply intimate familial event - watching a surgical operation that enabled her father to resume walking, reports the Express.
Mohamed Soliman, once an unassuming figure, is now charged with perpetrating a brutal, hate-driven assault that plunged a peaceful march in Boulder into chaos and flames, leaving 12 injured and one in critical condition.
Following the incident, Soliman's wife, Habiba's mother, along with her four siblings, were detained by ICE, as officials revoked their visas and initiated swift deportation proceedings, according to law enforcement sources speaking to The Post.
Soliman, 45, had been residing in the US unlawfully after his visa expired in March. Investigators now suspect he spent a year meticulously planning the attack, choosing to act only after his daughter finished high school.
Barred from purchasing firearms due to his immigration status, Soliman is accused of resorting to Molotov cocktails and ignited petrol, which he dispensed from a hose in a premeditated act of terror.
Harrowing video captured at the scene depicts him hurling antisemitic abuse as bystanders scatter in terror, some desperately trying to extinguish flames on scorched individuals.
The White House and FBI have denounced the event as "an antisemitic terror attack," and Soliman is facing federal hate crime and attempted murder charges.
Court filings reveal Soliman's harrowing admission regarding his motives for the attack.
He reportedly told officers he aimed to "kill all Zionist people," expressed a desire for their death, and admitted he would repeat his actions if possible.
It's reported that he anticipated the attack would result in his own demise, leaving farewell notes for his family concealed within their flat.
This alarming case continues to unravel as federal investigators delve into what seems to be a premeditated, ideologically motivated act of aggression - all while the suspect's daughter had just recently celebrated a future moulded by the very nation her father now stands accused of attacking.
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NBC News
4 days ago
- NBC News
Judge says hate crime prosecution in Boulder, Colorado, attack can proceed
DENVER — A federal judge said Wednesday that prosecutors can proceed with a hate crime charge against a man accused of hurling Molotov cocktails at a group of people demonstrating in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, appeared in federal court in Denver for a preliminary hearing following the June 1 attack in Boulder that injured at least eight people. Investigators say he planned the attack for a year and was driven by a desire "to kill all Zionist people." Soliman's defense attorney, David Kraut, urged Magistrate Judge Kathryn Starnella not to allow the case to move forward. Kraut said Soliman's anti-Zionist statements and his online search for a "Zionist" event to attack showed he targeted the demonstrators because of their perceived political views — their assumed support for the nation of Israel and the political movement of Zionism. An attack motivated by someone's political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law. Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Hindman said the government alleged that the attack was a hate crime because Soliman targeted people based on their national origin — their perceived connection to Israel. Prosecutors are not alleging that Soliman targeted demonstrators, who carried Israeli and American flags, because he believed they were Jewish, noting that he has said that not all Jewish people are Zionists. Hindman said Soliman did not use the term Israel. But she pointed out that he doesn't support its existence on what he called "our land," which he defined as Palestine. "He is targeting Israel, and he is targeting anyone who supports the existence of Israel on that land," she said. Starnella acknowledged that some of the evidence undercut the government's allegation that the demonstrators were targeted because of their perceived national origin but said other evidence supported it. At this stage, the government gets the benefit of the doubt on questions about evidence, she said. Investigators say Soliman told them he had intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration on Boulder's Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his over two dozen Molotov cocktails while yelling "Free Palestine." Soliman told investigators he tried to buy a gun but was not able to because he was not a "legal citizen." Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, has been living in the U.S. illegally with his family. During his Wednesday appearance, Soliman's lower right arm and hand were wrapped in a thick bandage, with handcuffs around his wrists. Police previously said he was taken to a hospital for unspecified injuries right after the attack. FBI agent Timothy Chan testified at Wednesday's hearing that Soliman burned himself as he threw the second Molotov cocktail. Soliman wrote "1187" with a marker on the shirt he was wearing during the attack, a reference to the year that Muslims liberated Jerusalem from Christian Crusaders, Chan said. The significance of that year and battle were also discussed in documents found in Soliman's car, he testified. Soliman did not carry out his full plan "because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before," police wrote in an arrest affidavit. One of the injured suffered burns over 60% of their body, Chan testified. An unspecified number of those injured remain in the hospital, he said. Authorities consider 15 people and a dog as victims of the attack at the downtown Pearl Street pedestrian mall. One is a Holocaust survivor. Some are considered victims because they could have been hurt. Soliman is charged separately in state court with multiple counts of attempted murder, assault and offenses related to more than a dozen additional Molotov cocktails police say he did not use. Run for Their Lives, the group targeted in the attack, started in October 2023 after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. Suspect's family asks for help Federal authorities are seeking to deport Soliman's wife and their five children. They range in age from 4 to 18 years old and are being held in an immigration detention center in Texas, according to court documents. The White House said in a June 3 social media post that one-way tickets had been purchased for the family members, adding: "Final boarding call coming soon." A Colorado federal judge temporarily blocked their deportation with a restraining order on June 4. The case has since been transferred to Texas, where a federal judge on Wednesday extended the restraining order another two weeks. Lawyers for the family had asked to keep the order in place, even though government lawyers said in court documents that the family would be deported under the normal process, not an expedited one because the lawyers did not address the earlier comments from the White House. In a statement Wednesday, Soliman's wife, Hayam El Gamal, said she and her children sent their love to the many families suffering as a result of the attack but also urged the American people to consider their plight now. She focused on the trouble her children were having. "All they want is to be home, to be in school, to have privacy, to sleep in their own beds, to have their mother make them a home-cooked meal, to help them grieve and get through these terrible weeks," she wrote.
The Herald Scotland
4 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Hate crime case against Boulder suspect can go forward, judge rules
Soliman faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if he's found guilty of the federal hate crime charges against him. The native of Egypt has also been charged in state court with 118 criminal counts, including attempted murder and other offenses. He sat expressionless in federal court in Denver. A city rattled: Divisions deepen in wealthy, liberal Boulder after antisemitic attack What happened in the attack in Boulder? Soliman is accused of lobbing Molotov cocktails and using a makeshift flamethrower to target Run for Their Lives, a group advocating for the release of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and held in Gaza for more than 20 months. The attack in Boulder came less than two weeks after two Israeli Embassy staff members were brazenly shot to death in Washington, D.C., amid a rise in antisemitism incidents across the U.S. and as tensions have escalated over Israel's war in Gaza, prompted by a brutal Hamas-led assault on Israeli border communities Oct. 7, 2023. What do authorities say was the suspect's motive? Soliman said "he wanted them to all die . . . He said he would go back and do it again and had no regret doing what he did," Boulder Detective John Sailer wrote in court papers of the attack on the gathering at a Boulder pedestrian mall. Soliman said that, to him, anyone who supported the existence of Israel on "our land" is a Zionist. He defined "our land" as Palestine, court documents said. Soliman allegedly hurled two of the 18 Molotov cocktails he'd brought with him, authorities said, yelling "Free Palestine." A federal affidavit charging Soliman with a hate crime and attempted murder says he learned about the march from an online search. He said he waited for his daughter to graduate from high school before executing the plot, according to the affidavit. He hoped to use a gun and had taken shooting classes, but his immigration status prevented him from purchasing a firearm, the affidavit says. What is happening in the immigration case In her first public statement, Soliman's wife, Hayam El Gamal, who along with her five children is being held at a family detention facility in south Texas, that they are "in total shock'' over her husband's alleged June 1 attack. El Gamal and the children, now ages 4 to 18, were arrested by immigration agents June 3, and the White House said they would be subjected to expedited deportation. But a federal judge in Denver blocked that move the next day, saying they were entitled to due process. By then the family had been transferred to the detention facility in Texas, where the case will be heard. "We are grieving, and we are suffering,'' El Gamal said in social media remarks posted Wednesday. "We are treated like animals by the officers, who told us we are being punished for what my husband is accused of doing.'' El Gamal said the family has been cooperating with authorities, and she expressed concern for both the victims of the attack and her children's wellbeing amid the anguish of their ordeal. El Gamal made the comments through Eric Lee, the lawyer representing her and the children, who posted them to his X account. Lee added that a federal judge on Wednesday extended a temporary restraining order keeping the Trump administration from deporting the family, who came to the U.S. from Kuwait in 2022 and sought asylum. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. What is the group Run for Their Lives? The national Run for Their Lives organization has sponsored walks and runs in hundreds of cities since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel, the deadliest on Jews since the Holocaust, as about 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage by Hamas. The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed since the onset of the war, which Israel launched in response to the attack. Contributing: Phaedra Trethan, Michael Loria, Trevor Hughes
Channel 4
14-06-2025
- Channel 4
Man who attacked police while armed with Molotov cocktails jailed for life
A man who attacked officers outside a south Wales police station – while armed with Molotov cocktails, has been jailed for life. Alexander Dighton stabbed one officer and knocked another unconscious, after trying to set fire to a police van during the attack in Rhondda Cynon Taf. The court heard that his sister had reported him to the counter-extremism Prevent programme a year earlier – but he was not considered to be a threat.
