The Latest: IS calls NY attacker 'soldier of the caliphate' | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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The Latest: IS calls NY attacker 'soldier of the caliphate'

In a photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017, a Palestine flag hangs from a window on a home, across the street from the Omar Mosque, in Paterson, N.J. The North Jersey town, which is home to a large Muslim community, has drawn attention in the wake of an attack in Manhattan, where a Paterson resident drove a pick-up truck onto a bike path, killing several people and injuring others. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Original Publication Date November 02, 2017 - 5:16 AM

NEW YORK - The latest on the investigation into the deadly bike path attack in Manhattan (all times local):

11:30 p.m.

A propaganda arm of the Islamic State group is calling the man charged in the New York City truck rampage a "soldier of the caliphate."

A message in an Islamic State weekly newspaper used the term in an item published late Thursday. That item then was translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

The Islamic State group has an interest in taking credit for attacks carried out by individuals who are self-radicalized. Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen said he acted on behalf of the group, which claimed him as a "soldier of the caliphate," but there is no evidence he was in contact with the group.

Police say truck attack suspect Sayfullo Saipov (sy-foo-LOH' sah-YEE'-pawf) drove his speeding truck onto a bike path on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring 12.

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8:40 p.m.

One of the people injured in the New York City bike path attack has been told that five of his high school classmates from Argentina were killed that day.

Argentina's consul in New York, Mateo Estreme, says Martin Marro was visited Thursday at a Manhattan hospital by his friends who survived the attack and his wife.

Marro is a native of Argentina who currently lives just outside of Boston in Newton, Massachusetts, and works as a biomedical researcher. His high school classmates came to the U.S. to visit him and celebrate the 30th anniversary of their graduation.

Estreme says Marro's friends wanted to tell him before they returned to Argentina. He says Marro was conscious and it was very emotional for all of them.

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7 p.m.

The eight people killed when a rental truck rampaged down a Manhattan bike path are being remembered at a vigil and memorial march.

Five of those killed were a group of classmates from Argentina celebrating the 30th anniversary of their graduation. One was a mother of two young children visiting from Belgium, and two were Americans.

Thursday night's candlelight event started at Pier 40 on Manhattan's west side, where the man charged in the attack is accused of initiating the assault.

The deadly drive continued south for almost a mile.

About 100 mourners began walking along the promenade next to the route. It ends at Pier 25, just north of where the truck crashed into a bus and the suspect, 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov (sy-foo-LOH' sy-EE'-pawf), was taken into custody.

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This story has been corrected to show the spelling of the suspect's first name is Sayfullo, not Sayfully.

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4 p.m.

Two New Jersey mosques in the city where the suspect in the New York City bike path terror attack lived are receiving threats.

The Islamic Center of Passaic County says it has gotten eight telephone threats to burn the centre down and kill its occupants, prompting extra police patrols in the area.

NorthJersey.com quotes Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale as saying the Omar Mosque, where suspect Sayfullo Saipov (sy-foo-LOH' sy-EE'-pawf) is reported to have prayed, also received threats. Officials there did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Saipov, who lived next door to the Omar mosque, is charged with providing material support to the Islamic State group and violence and destruction of motor vehicles.

His attorney has said it's important to let the judicial process play out.

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3 p.m.

President Donald Trump's tweets calling for the death penalty in the Halloween bike path attack that killed eight people could legally be cited as a symptom of widespread government bias. But experts say it's unlikely they'll become a speed bump in the prosecution.

Trump wrote on Twitter late Wednesday that Sayfullo Saipov (sy-foo-LOH' sy-EE'-pawf) "SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!"

On Thursday, he tweeted that prosecutors "Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY!"

A Fordham Law School professor says judges can weed out bias and will reject any defence claims about it.

Saipov is at a federal lockup.

His lawyer, David Patton, says he hopes "everyone lets the judicial process play out."

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2:10 p.m.

The man the FBI said it was seeking as a person of interest in the New York truck attack has rebuked the plot and says it was "not from our religion."

On Wednesday, the FBI released a poster saying it was looking for Mukhammadzoir Kadirov, only to announce less than 90 minutes later that it had found him. He has not been detained or arrested.

On Thursday, Kadirov released a statement to The Associated Press through a person in touch with his family. It calls the attack "sad and unbelievable." He says "no human being who has a heart can do this."

A law enforcement official says Kadirov was a friend of suspect Sayfullo Saipov (sy-foo-LOH' sah-YEE'-pawf) and may not have any role in the case. Saipov didn't have many friends, said the official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

—Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed from New York.

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12:15 p.m.

New York City officials are praising the staff and students at a high school next to the bike path where a deadly truck attack occurred.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina (fah-REEN'-yah) spoke Thursday outside Stuyvesant (STY'-veh-sehnt) High School.

They said they were deeply moved by the accounts of those who hunkered down in the school Tuesday as the carnage unfolded outside.

People from all backgrounds took care of each other.

Members of the school community — including a teacher hurt on the bike path — wanted to return the next day to show terrorism hadn't won.

Farina previously talked to a student from another school who was hurt on the bus struck by the attacker's truck.

He insisted on keeping up his perfect attendance record.

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10:55 a.m.

The family of the suspect in New York City's deadly bike path attack are secular Uzbeks who live an apparently comfortable life in a suburb of the capital.

That's according to a Radio Free Europe report on Thursday that cited neighbours of the family of Sayfullo Saipov, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to the report, the neighbours said Saipov's parents run a small clothing stall in a local market, and own a car and their own house.

They live in Uchtepa, on the outskirts of Tashkent, and formerly resided in an apartment in a middle-class district of the capital.

The report cited the neighbours as saying the parents were very secular and "ordinary."

Authorities in New York say Saipov was following instructions of the Islamic State group when he drove a truck down a bike path on Tuesday, killing eight people.

In the past few years, the Islamic State has exhorted followers online to use vehicles, knives or other close-at-hand means of killing people in their home countries. England, France and Germany have all seen deadly vehicle attacks since mid-2016.

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9 a.m.

President Donald Trump says he'd love to send the suspect in New York City's deadly truck attack to Guantanamo Bay. But Trump tweets that the judicial process at the Cuban detention centre takes longer than the federal court system.

Trump tweeted again Thursday, hours after saying Sayfullo Saipov (sy-foo-LOH' sah-YEE'-pawf) should get the death penalty.

The president doubled down on his earlier tweet, typing, "Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY!"

The president had said Wednesday he would consider sending Saipov to Guantanamo Bay. But that avenue appeared closed after prosecutors brought terrorism charges against the Uzbek immigrant in federal court in New York on Wednesday.

Trump tweeted Thursday that there is "also something appropriate" about keeping Saipov "in the home of the horrible crime he committed."

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8:10 a.m.

A New York Police Department official says authorities are not seeing anything that leads them to believe anyone else was involved in the bike path rampage.

Deputy Commissioner John Miller said Thursday on "CBS This Morning" that Sayfullo Saipov (sy-foo-LOH' sy-EE'-pawf) is the only suspect, but that could change. The 29-year-old was charged Wednesday with terrorism and other crimes.

Miller says he Saipov was "following ISIS instructions" to "yell it out" and spread the terrorist agenda.

Miller says the group suggests leaving leaflets at the scene of terrorist acts.

Eight people were killed in Tuesday's attack near the World Trade Center.

Saipov's lawyer, David Patton, says he hopes "everyone lets the judicial process play out."

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1 a.m.

Authorities say the suspect in a deadly truck rampage was inspired by the Islamic State group's online videos and plotted his New York City attack for two months.

They say Sayfullo Saipov (sy-foo-LOH' sy-EE'-pawf) chose to attack on Halloween because he believed streets would be extra crowded, and he rented a truck ahead of time to practice turning it.

Authorities also say that after killing eight people in Tuesday's attack, Saipov told investigators that he felt good about what he'd done.

Those details emerged in a criminal complaint filed Wednesday against the 29-year-old Uzbek immigrant. He's facing federal terrorism charges that could carry the death penalty.

Saipov's appointed lawyer, David Patton, says he hopes "everyone lets the judicial process play out."

Meanwhile, the FBI is questioning a second Uzbek man.

News from © The Associated Press, 2017
The Associated Press

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