The Islamic State militants have claimed responsibility for the terror attack at Ohio State University that injured 11 people. The Sunni Islamic militant outfit, which is fighting for life in Iraq's Mosul, said on Tuesday a "soldier of the Islamic State" launched the attack at Ohio State University.
Hours after the attack the Islamic state propaganda newswire Amaq carried a statement that said the Ohio assailant carried out the attack "in response to calls to target the citizens of the international coalition." Before that Isis supporters on their Telegram channel referred to the attacker, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, as a "brother" and used an Arabic hashtag that translates to #OhioAttack.
Artan, a Somalia-born legal permanent resident, rammed a car into a crowd of students at the University building and stabbed nine people before being shot dead by the security officer.
Police could not immediately verify the motive of the attack but suspected it was carried out by someone who had got radicalised. It later emerged that the 20-year-old student had stayed in Pakistan before entering the US as a refugee.
Preliminary investigation had indicated that Artan might have been radicalised by jihadists. Minutes before the attack he made a Facebook post that all but gave away the motive behind the attack. "I can't take it anymore. America! Stop interfering with other countries, especially the Muslim Ummah. We are not weak. We are not weak, remember that," the post read
Artan tore through a group of people in his silver-coloured car and knocked people up into air and crashed into the sidewall. He then got out of the car and started hacking people with the butcher's knife.
Artan and his family left Somalia for Pakistan in 2007 before they were able to obtain a United States green card in 2014. He was enrolled at Columbus State Community College from the fall semester of 2014.
He also wrote on Facebook agitated posts awash with jihadist terminology. If the United States wants "Muslims to stop carrying lone wolf attacks, then make peace with 'dawla in al sham,' one of the posts said, according to NYT. "Every single Muslim who disapproves of my actions is a sleeper cell, waiting for a signal. I am warning you Oh America," he said.
