New York Attacker Is A ‘Soldier Of The Caliphate,’ ISIS Alleges

New York Attacker Is A ‘Soldier Of The Caliphate,’ ISIS Alleges

The driver who plowed down pedestrians and cyclists on a New York bike path is a “soldier of the caliphate,” the ISIS terror group said on its weekly newspaper, without providing evidence to back up its claim.

The attack Tuesday killed eight people and left more than a dozen others injured.

“One of the Islamic State soldiers in America attacked on Tuesday a number of crusaders on a street in New York City,” the al-Naba newspaper reported Thursday.

The terror group provided no evidence that ISIS had knowledge of the attack before it happened or it was involved in planning it. The article did not name the attacker.

Suspect Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov has told authorities that he was inspired to carry out the attack after watching ISIS videos and closely followed the terror group’s playbook for an attack.

While ISIS did not claim direct responsibility for the attack, it described the attacker as one of its soldiers.

The 29-year-old Uzbek native was charged with providing material support to ISIS, violence and destruction of motor vehicles, said Joon H. Kim, acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Saipov drove a rental truck down a bike path in New York’s Lower Manhattan, crashed into a school bus and then jumped out, brandishing imitation firearms, officials said. He was shot by New York police Officer Ryan Nash in the abdomen and taken into custody.

He didn’t enter a plea Wednesday to the federal terror charges.

Saipov was so devoted to ISIS, he wanted to display the terror group’s flag in his hospital room, documents show. He had about 90 videos and 3,800 images on a cell phone featuring ISIS propaganda, including video of a beheading, according to the complaint.

This is the first time the terror group has put such a claim on its newspaper before releasing it on its media wing, Amaq news agency, which is its first point of publication for claims of responsibility.

The wording of the ISIS statement — not claiming the attack as an outright act of ISIS and saying the person carrying the attack is one of its “soldiers” — mirrors ISIS’ language in statements after an attack in France and the nightclub shooting in Orlando last year.