A Day of Terror Amid the Holiday Season

Shootings in Syria, Rhode Island and Australia—and more. The global Islamic terrorist war on the West hasn’t ended.

It was a bloody 24 hours. First, three Americans were killed and three wounded on Saturday by an ISIS terrorist in Syria’s security forces. Then two students were killed and nine injured in a shooting at Brown University whose motive is unknown as we write. Next, at least 15 were killed and 40 injured in a terrorist attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Australia.

Flowers and candles rest at the Brown University campus on Sunday, Providence, R.I.

On Friday German police arrested five men—three Moroccans, a Syrian and an Egyptian—on suspicion of planning an attack on a Christmas market. That night a Jewish home in Redlands, Calif., was shot up. The Anti-Defamation League, which is in touch with the victim, says, “A suspect shouted antisemitic slurs and fired approximately 20 rounds into the home, which was clearly decorated with Hanukkah decorations.”

With time we will learn more, but for now we can say this: While the “global war on terrorism” may have ended, the global terrorist war on the rest of us hasn’t.

The shooter in Syria, who killed two Iowa National Guard soldiers and a U.S. interpreter, can’t be dismissed as a lone infiltrator. President Ahmed al-Sharaa has made a momentous shift to bring Syria into the American orbit, but as these pages have warned, some of the foreign jihadists who fought alongside him have been made commanders in the Syrian army.

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said the attack underscores the need for the residual U.S. force in Syria to keep ISIS down. President Trump has brought Syria sanctions relief, and the least Mr. Sharaa now owes in return is to purge his forces of these elements, especially in the upper ranks.

In Australia, police identified the shooters as father and son, the latter named Naveed Akram, reportedly of Pakistani origin. They fired into a Jewish crowd, killing men, women and children. Australia has seen worsening antisemitic incitement and Iran-sponsored attacks on Jews since Oct. 7, 2023, while the Labor government joined the libels against Israel.

Among the dead is Chabad Rabbi Eli Schlanger, ordained in Brooklyn. Also shot was the young Rabbi Leibel Lazaroff of College Station, Texas, where his family serves the Jews of Texas A&M. He’s in the ICU.

A hero is fruit vendor Ahmed al-Ahmed, who rushed one of the Sydney shooters and wrestled his gun away. He was shot and wounded, while a witness accused police of standing back.

The ghastly toll is a reminder of the continuing danger from Islamic terrorism. U.S. soldiers in the Middle East, Christians in the heart of Europe, and Jews as far-flung as Australia are all considered targets.