Nation/World

Islamic State claims responsibility for Manhattan terrorist attack

NEW YORK — The Islamic State claimed responsibility late Thursday for the terrorist attack in Lower Manhattan two days earlier that killed eight people and wounded a dozen more.

The statement was issued in the group's weekly newsletter and called Tuesday's rampage "one of the most prominent attacks targeting Crusaders in America."

It describes the suspect, Sayfullo Saipov, 29, as a "soldier of the Caliphate" and goes on to say that the attack was carried out in response to the group's call to target "citizens of the Crusader countries involved in the alliance against the Islamic State."

It was an uncharacteristically late claim for a group that in the past year has typically issued its statements within the first 24 hours after an attack. It was also not released through the Islamic State's Amaq News Agency, which is usually the first to carry such statements. And it marks a break with the usual pattern of not claiming responsibility for an attack when a suspect is in custody.

As the investigation continues, the federal authorities are increasingly focusing on a wedding in Florida two years ago attended by Saipov as a possible key to understanding whether he had personal ties to people connected to the Islamic State, law enforcement officials said.

A person at the wedding was under scrutiny by the FBI as part of a terrorism investigation at the time, the officials said. Saipov's presence at the wedding brought him to the FBI's attention, though it did not prompt an investigation of him, law enforcement officials said.

The wedding, the details of which have not previously been reported, was held in August 2015 in the clubhouse of a sprawling apartment complex in Fort Myers, Florida, that was the home of relatives of Saipov, according to a Muslim cleric whom Saipov invited to the celebration.

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The groom was the brother-in-law of Saipov, an immigrant from Uzbekistan. The bride was an Uzbek woman from Fort Myers, whose family lived in the apartment complex where the celebration was held.

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The cleric, Abdul, who is affiliated with a mosque in Tampa and spoke on the condition that only his first name be used because he feared reprisals, described the event as a small affair with about 20 attendees, some of whom had traveled from New York and California.

The person at the wedding who was under an active FBI investigation would have been the subject of physical and electronic surveillance.

While the wedding provided a clue about the direction of the FBI investigation into the Manhattan truck attack, , many questions about the wedding remain unanswered.

It is not clear if the FBI is still investigating the person at the wedding who was under scrutiny at the time. Officials have also not named that person or said why they were investigating the person.

The wedding is at the center of widening circles of Saipov's connections that federal agents are scrutinizing as they try to determine whether he had direct connections with Islamic State operatives.

The celebration was held in a carpeted poolside meeting room with maroon walls and a built-in bar. A sign warns against exceeding an occupancy of 92 people. The apartment complex, Osprey Cove, rents the room to residents at the complex for a $100 fee, and a $100 deposit, for four hours.

Oak trees and palm trees dot the complex, a circle of apartment buildings arranged around a man-made lake. The complex has about 350 apartment units.

Adjoining the party space is a smaller room where brides sometimes change and the apartment complex stores chairs and tables for big dinners.

At the wedding, Abdul said he gave about a 20-minute speech — a blessing of sorts — before the attendees ate Uzbek food and talked. He described the apartment complex as fancy, but said little else was memorable about the ceremony.

It was an unlikely setting for an Uzbek wedding because few Uzbek families live in Fort Myers, he said. He was invited to many weddings because of his following in the Uzbek community, and he officiated Saipov's wedding, he said.

Saipov was married in Ohio in 2013 to Nozima Odilova. Officials said she was cooperating with investigators and has hired a lawyer. The couple live in Paterson, New Jersey, and have three children.

Abdul said Saipov attended his Tampa mosque for a time, and he became worried that Saipov increasingly misinterpreted Islam. As Saipov grew more devoted to the outward observances of Islam, Abdul said he urged him to calm down and learn the substance of the religion.

Federal investigators this week were pursuing another lead related to Saipov's friendships in Florida. They announced Wednesday that they were trying to learn more about a second Uzbek man, Mukhammadzoir Kadirov, 32. Later that day, they said they had found Kadirov in New Jersey. They did not say why they were interested in him.

It was at an apartment complex in Tampa where neighbors said Kadirov lived until a few months ago where they saw him and Saipov together.

"They'd be together all the time," said Joshua Clemente, 26, who remembered Kadirov moving into the apartment directly above his with a wife and two children. "His friend would come over. They would go inside or they would go to the mosque down the street."

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Clemente was referring to the Islamic Society of Tampa Bay, where his younger brother, Jeremy, 17, said he used to see the two men.

The brothers said an FBI agent had come to the family's apartment Wednesday and had shown them a picture of Kadirov.

"Oh, I know that guy," the younger Clemente said he told the agent. "He was a self-conscious person. Him and the other guy would go up and down the stairs all the time. They'd just sit on the bench by the basketball court, or get into the white Toyota van that the guy with the beard had. He didn't talk a lot; he'd only talk to the people he knew. Sometimes he'd wave or say 'hi,' but that was about it."

On Thursday, Kadirov, through an intermediary, issued a statement denouncing the attack in New York.

"It is so sad and unbelievable," the statement read in part. "It is not acceptable. We as Muslims completely reject this kind of actions. No human being who has a heart can do this."

In New York on Thursday, the Transportation Department began placing hundreds of concrete barriers at 57 intersections along the Hudson River Park Bikeway.

Al Baker, Nick Madigan and William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.

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