ISIS Claims NYC Terror Attack, Calls Accused Its 'Soldier'

NEW YORK, NY — The Islamic State group on Thursday claimed responsibility for this week's Tribeca attack that killed eight people and wounded a dozen. The latest issue of ISIS' "Al-Naba" newsletter calls alleged attacker Sayfullo Saipov a "soldier of the Caliphate," according to published translations.

The newsletter, written in Arabic, does not indicate direct coordination between Saipov and ISIS but suggests the group inspired his attack, news reports say.

"One of the Islamic State soldiers in America attacked on Tuesday a number of crusaders on a street in New York City," the newsletter says, according to CNN.

U.S. and New York law enforcement officials have said Saipov, 29, closely followed ISIS' instructions for killing Western civilians with large vehicles. He considered hanging ISIS flags from the pickup truck he used to run down pedestrians and cyclists on the Hudson River Greenway, according to a court filing.

ISIS took longer to claim responsibility for this attack than other terrorist-inspired strikes in the West. It took credit within a day of a similar truck attack in Berlin, Germany last December. It also took less than a day to claim the June 2016 massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

The group usually publishes claims of responsibility through its Amaq News Agency, and does not make them when the attacker is in custody, according to The New York Times.

The FBI and NYPD are continuing to probe Saipov's path to the attack and his possible links to ISIS. The New Jersey resident, who is facing federal terrorism charges, left a note saying he carried out the strike in ISIS' name, court filings show.

Saipov came to the U.S. from Uzbekistan in 2010 and previously lived in Florida and Ohio. Investigators believe he was "radicalized domestically," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. Authorities found about 90 videos of violent ISIS propaganda on one of his cellphones, court filings say.

The FBI is looking into a 2015 wedding in Florida that was attended by Saipov and another man who was the subject of a federal terrorism investigation, the Times reported.

In Friday morning tweets reacting to ISIS' claim, President Donald Trump said the terrorist group "will pay a big price for every attack on us!"

Without elaborating, he said "the Military has hit ISIS 'much harder' over the last two days." He also called Saipov a "Degenerate Animal."

Also See: Terror Victims Remembered At NYC Vigil

(Lead image: Sayfullo Saipov's mugshot from an unrelated arrest in Missouri. Photo by St. Charles County Department of Corrections via Getty Images)