Mitrovica, Kosovo, November 22, 2017
Photo: b92.net Among the materials discovered at former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s hideout and on his personal computer, released by the CIA on November 1, was a picture of an Orthodox Church and a call for jihad in the disputed region of Kosovo, reports InSerbia Today.
The materials were seized from the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan after U.S. Navy SEALs stormed it and killed bin Laden in May 2011.
The photograph discovered on the terrorist leader’s computer is of St. Dimitrije Church in Mitrovica in northern Kosovo. The treasure trove of files also contained a map of the town.
Church of St. Dimitrije, Mitrovica, Kosovo. Photo: flickr.com InSerbia, citing the website Politika, notes that, in searching through the 470,000 released files, a banner was also found, reading “Kosovo jihad—the Muslim extermination of Kosovo Christians,” as well as a map of Kosovo from the times of the Ottoman Empire.
From the fourteenth century to the present day, the land of Kosovo and Metohija has been, and will always remain, the spiritual heartland of the Serbian Orthodox nation. However, in February of 2008 the Albanian government in Kosovo declared it to be an independent state. The Serbs now live as virtual prisoners in their own heartland, surrounded by NATO troops to keep Albanian extremists from finishing their job of ethnic cleansing.
According to Sputnik, the map of Mitrovica and the picture of the Serbian Church originally appeared on the BBC website in an article entitled “Kosovo Serbs Face Hard Choices,” published on March 14, 2007.
