The terrorist group Islamic State in a newsletter claimed responsibility for the attack in New York City this week that left eight people dead, although it provided no evidence to back up the claim.
The terrorist group, also known as ISIS, made the claim in its al-Naba newsletter. The newsletter refers to the suspected attacker as a “soldier of the Islamic State,” according to security consulting firm and NBC News partner Flashpoint Intelligence.
The suspect in Tuesday’s truck rampage in Manhattan, 29-year-old Uzbek national Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, told investigators he was inspired to carry out the truck attack by ISIS videos he had watched on his phone, according to a criminal complaint. Law enforcement sources have said it appeared Saipov acted alone.
Saipov, who came to the United States in 2010, used a rented truck to run down people on a bike path along the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan, police have said. He was shot and wounded by police, and on Wednesday was charged with two federal counts.
Saipov told investigators he had become radicalized by watching ISIS videos on his phone and was inspired by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s call for revenge on the United States, the federal complaint says.
ISIS has urged its supporters to use vehicles in terror attacks. New York police deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism John Miller said Wednesday that Saipov “appears to have followed, almost exactly to a T, the instructions that ISIS has put out in its social media channels before with instructions to their followers on how to carry out such an attack.”
ISIS has made dubious claims of responsibility in the past, including claiming that Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was a “soldier” of the terror organization, also without providing evidence. That claim has been widely discounted by terrorism experts, and the FBI said there was no evidence that attack was connected to international terrorism.
The newsletter in which ISIS claimed responsibility for the New York attack also referenced the Las Vegas shooting. Paddock killed 58 people when he opened fire on a concert crowd on Oct. 1. Paddock then apparently killed himself, authorities have said.