Was Islamic State's claim for Las Vegas attack 'fake news'?


Las Vegas, Oct 4 (AFP): Claims of responsibility for terror attacks by the Islamic State group were once seen as credible, but in the wake of the Las Vegas atrocity, experts stress that the retreating jihadists are increasingly spreading fake news.

Via its propaganda news agency Amaq, IS has twice said that the Las Vegas shooter, a 64-year-old retired accountant, was a "soldier" of the group.

On Monday, it put out a second statement claiming serial gambler Stephen Paddock had recently converted to Islam and was known by the nom de guerre Abu Abdel Bar al-Amriki.

American investigators are scrambling to understand the motive for the worst shooting in living memory on US soil, but IS experts are sceptical that Paddock was linked to the terror group.

The FBI said on Monday it had so far found "no connection" between him and any international terrorist group.

"ISIS in recent months has made a number of demonstrably false claims for attacks and incidents that had no jihadi terror nexus," Paul Cruickshank from the US-based Combating Terrorism Center said.

One theory is that, as the extremists face military defeat on the territory they once held in Iraq and Syria, they are seeking to generate publicity to show they are still a force to their supporters.

"ISIS, desperate for attention, will claim just about anything these days knowing their supporters won't believe the government or media," Cruickshank added.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb made the same point on Tuesday, saying the group "tended to claim every attack" in order to "maintain a presence in the media space."

Dubious claims

Discerning who is ultimately responsible for attacks is an inexact science.

The gunmen and suicide bombers behind the carnage in Paris in November 2015, for example, are believed by investigators to have carried out an attack which was planned in part from the fanatics' base in Syria.

But other killings have been perpetrated by people seemingly inspired by the group's murderous ideology, but without necessarily having been in contact. Some have left flags or a video message to indicate their allegiance.

Last week, IS released a recording of what it said was its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urging followers to use any weapon at their disposal to strike the West.

"If the guy is a convert and made contact with ISIS, someone would have to know," Islamic State specialist Shiraz Maher wrote on Twitter, referring to the Las Vegas shooter.

"Friends, family, law enforcement will shed light on that," added the researcher and author from King's College London university.

The problem, like all fake news, is that once a story spreads on social media or elsewhere on the internet it is very difficult to correct it.

Farhad Khosrokhavar, an expert on Islam from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris (EHESS), used the example of a truck attack in Nice in July 2016 that left 86 people dead.

IS claimed Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a drug-taking Tunisian with no religious education, was one of its "soldiers" following the attack, but there remains no evidence tying him to the group.

"This massacre had nothing to do with jihadism, the perpetrator had huge psychological problems," Khosrokhavar told AFP. "But no one listens. There are moments when societies are blind and they then fall into the Islamic State's trap."

  

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Comment on this article

  • Don, Mangalore

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    All acts of terrorism come from an ideology of hate. Hence, all right thinking people should condemn the many twisted ideologies that motivates people to kill and destroy all those whom them see others as a threat, or who don't subscribe to their way of life or thinking.

    The holy Bible says "Condemn Sin (the breaking God's law of love, and replacing it with hate) and not the Sinner (people)". How true?

    DisAgree Agree Reply Report Abuse

  • Vantage Point, Mangalore

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    The best friend of ISIS is media... Without verifying the authenticity of their claims...Most of the media just publish it... Three to four major blasts around the world in past was falsely claimed or ascribed to ISIS by media without verifying the facts which was later found false... Most of media here doesn't even publish apology or corrected that news....
    Our local Kannada media and even some of our national media claimed the person converted to Islam which even FBI or even mainstream US media abstained from saying so... May be they are watching Alex Jones Conspiracy theories...They have not provided any apology nor corrected that news...Just shows how our Indian media sparing few are inherently bigoted

    Whenever any terrorist attacks happen the most happy of the people are these people who just get any excuse to malign ,slander a community for the crimes of few... Now their silence on why they dont want to ban whole people for crimes of few ...Just exposes their inherent bigotry...

    DisAgree [2] Agree [7] Reply Report Abuse

  • MSSheik, Kudroli/KSA

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    you are correct. The propaganda news likes times now was the first to publish this fake news. While western news like bbc and cnn behaved more responsibly. Even NDTV also published this fake news .

    DisAgree [1] Agree [1] Reply Report Abuse

  • mas, kundapur/dxb

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    I doubt why ISIS or al qaeda must claim for any terror act? is it an achiement? if they use some media platform to claim responsibility shut down the media ............but do you think they are more powerful than USA or Israel?

    DisAgree [1] Agree [5] Reply Report Abuse

  • Ahmed K. C., Mangalore

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    Any killings takes place anywhere in the world, muslims are to be blamed. Just because of some pseudo Muslims who indulge in terror activities for the benefit of their masters.

    DisAgree [2] Agree [9] Reply Report Abuse

  • Jeevan, Mangalore

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    I have doubt on israeli

    DisAgree [7] Agree [10] Reply Report Abuse

  • Nawaz, Udupi /Kuwait

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    Let aside fake news from ISIS. The very ISIS itself is a "fake" name.

    DisAgree [3] Agree [16] Reply Report Abuse

  • Jaimini P.B., Manipal,Sharjah

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    64 Year old, Retd Accountant action is as bad as IS ...America failed in protecting human lives...Law and order in gone case stage. ..This guy had 43 Automatic rifles with him...Anyone can buy AK47 or Automatic guns and shoot...Even school kids are carrying pistols and shooting school mates..This is another face of America..Gun culture and Careless Life style are sinking America slowly...

    DisAgree [2] Agree [9] Reply Report Abuse

  • kas, Mangalore

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    No mention of IS Bootha .....

    DisAgree [1] Agree [2] Reply Report Abuse

  • Hussain, Abu Dhabi

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    Fekuism is blossoming all over

    DisAgree [5] Agree [11] Reply Report Abuse

  • kas, Mangalore

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    YES ..... Media has no other work other than spreading lies.... to make the innocent as culprit .... more over the Media is purchased by lobbies....

    DisAgree [4] Agree [8] Reply Report Abuse

  • HENRY MISQUITH, Bahrain

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    This may not be an act of international terrorism related to ISIS or Jihadi extremists. But this most definitely was an act of lone wolf, home grown terrorism.

    DisAgree [1] Agree [13] Reply Report Abuse

  • Jossey Saldanha, Mumbai

    Wed, Oct 04 2017

    The World is following Narendra Modi ...

    DisAgree [12] Agree [21] Reply Report Abuse


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