The attacker who killed eight people in a truck rampage in New York on Tuesday is its “soldier”, the Islamic State (IS) claimed on Thursday, according to a United States-based monitoring group.
“One of the soldiers of the Islamic State attacked a number of crusaders on a street in New York City,” said an article in the latest issue of the group's al-Naba weekly newspaper, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
Sayfullo Saipov, 29, an immigrant from Uzbekistan, is charged with terrorism offences after allegedly driving a rented pickup truck down a mile-long stretch of a bike path in Manhattan.
The charging document says he confessed to acting in the name of the IS and “felt good about what he had done” even demanding to hang an the IS flag in his hospital room.
'Followed IS instructions'
Police said he appeared to have followed very closely "the instructions" that the IS put out to its followers on social media.
He was allegedly in possession of three knives, thousands of IS propaganda images and dozens of videos that showed IS fighters killing prisoners.
The picture of Saipov that has emerged is of a suspect who was radicalized after moving to the U.S. in 2010.
“The grace of Allah, the operation instilled fear in crusader America, prompting them to increase security measures and intensify actions against immigrants to America,” the IS said in the al-Naba article, according to SITE.
After a gunman shot dead 58 people last month in Las Vegas, the IS claimed that the killer was also one of its "soldiers" but the FBI said it found no such links with accused Stephen Paddock.