ISIS Claims Responsibility for Las Vegas Attack Again, with New Info About Shooter

ISIS isn’t letting up in their claim that Las Vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock, is one of their converts. Soon after Paddock took the lives of 58 people and wounded hundreds more on Sunday, ISIS announced that they were responsible for the attack.

According to a statement by ISIS on Monday, Stephen Paddock had been given the name “Abu Abd Abdul Barr al-Ameriki,” or Abu Abd Abdul Barr the American. However, the FBI had serious doubts as to the validity of the terrorist group’s statement as ISIS provided little evidence for their claim.

ISIS has continued to push the claim as hard as it can. On Thursday, the terrorist group included some background on Paddock on the second page of their weekly 16-page newsletter, al-Naba, according to the New York Times’ ISIS correspondent Rukmini Callimachi.

1. After ISIS claimed Vegas, I was waiting for them to release Naba, their weekly newsletter, to see if anything new emerged. Naba is out: pic.twitter.com/yX8AN3OdSX

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) October 5, 2017

2. Under a picture of the Mandalay Bay drenched in blood they rehash the attack. New info: They are now claiming shooter converted 6 mos ago pic.twitter.com/2t53MSBNHq

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) October 5, 2017

Using the name given to him by ISIS, the newsletter describes Paddock’s actions as if they were heroic.

“The brother Abu Abdul Barr stationed himself for the invasion on the 32nd floor of a hotel overlooking a concert, and opened fire continuously on the crowds using 23 guns and more than 2,000 rounds, and died, may Allah accept him, after exhausting his ammunition,” al-Naba states.

3. Below is the @siteintelgroup translation. ISIS earlier said shooter converted “months ago.” Now they’re saying it was 6 mos specifically pic.twitter.com/Lo6hF1S65M

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) October 5, 2017

Despite their repeated claims, ISIS has still provided zero evidence as to whether or not Paddock had actually converted. Callimachi holds that ISIS rarely claims responsibility for an attack that they didn’t commit, which leads her to believe the terrorist group’s claims should not be dismissed out of hand.

It should be noted that ISIS did recently try to take credit for the attempt on Defense Secretary James Mattis’s life by the Taliban, while Mattis was conducting an unscheduled visit to Afghanistan in September. ISIS provided no evidence for that claim either.

According to NBC News, ISIS attempting to steal credit from the Taliban for attacks is nothing new.

Earlier today, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said he believed that Paddock could not have been working alone. While Lombardo did not mention any terrorist groups, if ISIS claims are legitimate, it would fit Lombardo’s theory as to how Paddock could have gotten so many munitions, explosives, and “electronic devices.”

However, at this time, neither the FBI or ISIS have presented any proof that Paddock had become a terrorist operative.

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