ISIS claimed responsibility Thursday for the New York City attack in which Uzbekistan immigrant Sayfullo Saipov drove a rented truck through a crowded bike path killing eight and injuring 12 others, several news sites reported.
In its weekly Al-Naba newsletter, the Islamic State declared that Saipov, 29, was "one of the caliphate soldiers," the New York Daily News reported.
Fox News included a Twitter post in its report containing the ISIS announcement:
Saipov is suspected of renting a Home Depot truck to drive through a bike path along the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan, hitting pedestrians before jumping out the vehicle and shouting "Allahu akbar," which is "God is great," in Arabic.
CBS News reported that authorities charged Saipov with providing material support to a terrorist organization and using a vehicle to cause violence.
The Daily News reported, though, that ISIS did not give any additional evidence to support its claim. Saipov, a legal permanent U.S. resident, reportedly had asked to display the Islamic State's flag in his hospital room, per the newspaper.
Saipov allegedly told police investigators that he was inspired ISIS videos that he watched over his smartphone, according to a criminal complaint, NBC News reported. Law enforcement sources told the network they believe Saipov acted alone.
The federal complaint charged that Saipov told them he was moved by the call from ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi for revenge on the United States, NBC News reported.
In the past, the Islamic State had called on its followers to use vehicles to hit people in terror attack, NBC News said.
John Miller, New York police deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, told the network that it appeared that Saipon "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," NBC News said.
CBS News reported that a law enforcement source said that police "tracked the numbers on (Saipov's) phones and have linked them to 'sympathizers of a radical cause' who were already on 'New York police radar,'" including on the day of the attack.
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