The attacker who killed eight people in a truck rampage in New York was a “soldier” of the ISIS group, the jehadis said on Friday, according to a US-based monitoring group.
“One of the soldiers of the ISIS 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 bike path in Manhattan. The charging document says he confessed to acting in the name of ISIS and “felt good about what he
had done,” even demanding to hang an ISIS flag in his hospital room.
Police said he appeared to have followed very closely “the instructions” that ISIS put out to its followers on social media.
He was allegedly in possession of three knives, thousands of ISIS propaganda images and dozens of videos that showed ISIS fighters killing prisoners.
The picture of Saipov that has emerged is of a suspect who only radicalised after moving to the United States in 2010.