IndiaToday.in | Edited by Dev Goswami
New Delhi, November 3, 2017 | UPDATED 09:33 IST
The terror group also called the Manhattan attack "one of the most prominent attacks targeting Crusaders in America".
Sayfullo Saipov, the man who killed eight people in Manhattan, US (Photo: Twitter/Rita_Katz)The Islamic State has commented on Wednesday's Manhattan truck attack that killed eight people, saying the man responsible for the deaths was a "soldier of the caliphate".
The global terror group has been known to be swift when advancing claims of responsibility for terrorist strikes and usually does it via its official news agency, Amaq. Today's statements, however, were came in its weekly newsletter, and picked up by journalists and private intelligence operators.
1. The Islamic State has just issued its weekly newsletter and in it they describe the Manhattan attacker as a "soldier of the caliphate" pic.twitter.com/xNymoOeeSG
- Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) November 3, 2017
According to a New York Times journalist who covers the Islamic State, the terror group also called the Manhattan attack "one of the most prominent attacks targeting Crusaders in America". The ISIS statement reportedly goes on to say the Manhattan attack a nod to the terror group's call to the "soldiers of the caliphate in America and Europe to target the citizens of the Crusader countries that are part of the alliance against the Islamic State."
Notably, as the boss of a private intelligence agency observed, the Islamic State did not talk about or suggest that it had help with planning or coordinating the attack.
2) #ISIS didn't indicate any connection/coordination with the #NYC attacker Sayfullo Saipov, but as an ISIS inspired attack pic.twitter.com/W4DLYT77d8
- Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) November 3, 2017
The ISIS statement apart from talking about the Manhattan terror attack also spoke about last month's Las Vegas shooting, which too was claimed by the Islamic State. More than 50 people died after a gunman rained bullets from a hotel window onto a crowd of concert-goers in Las Vegas.
In Manhattan, Sayfullo Saipov drove a truck onto a bicycle path and mowed down cyclists and pedestrians, killing eight people and injuring several more.
United States of America officials, soon after the attack, said that it was a suspected terrorist incident but have not yet officially pinned the blame on ISIS. US President Donald Trump, however, has referenced ISIS in his tweets about the incident, which have called for the Manhattan attacker to be sentenced to death.
(With inputs from agencies)