New York is once again the target of a Terror Attack, with probable links to the ISIS. The attack involved a moving truck that mowed down innocent people in lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center. The suspect drove the rented vehicle into unsuspecting cyclists and was trying to flee the scene when he was shot by the police. It seems he had dummy weapons with him.
The man has been identified as a 29-year-old from Uzbekistan who was residing in the United States since 2010. He has been taken into custody. A note, written in English, was found inside the truck which indicated probable links to ISIS.
Eight people died in the attack while another dozen suffered injuries. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has labeled it as an act of act of terrorism. FBI is investigating the case.
Sequence of events
CNN reports that the suspect was driving a rental truck. He jumped the curb but kept driving on the bike path in lower Manhattan. He drove for several blocks, crashed into a school bus, abandoned the vehicle, and displayed the imitation firearms. When he tried to escape, he was shot by a police officer.
Six people were killed on the spot in the terror attack after the wayward truck rammed into them while two more were declared dead on arrival at the hospital. The injured, numbering nearly a dozen, were taken to the hospital with serious injuries, but they were not life-threatening ones.
There have been earlier instances in London, and Nice of terror attacks involving moving trucks ramming into innocent people. The latest such attack has happened in New York.
Is this a lone-wolf attack?
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the suspect hails from Uzbekistan, and had brushes with the law on several occasions.
Efforts are on to check if he had visited his country after moving to the United States in 2010. This could be a lone-wolf attack unless accomplices are traced.
According to a terrorism analyst associated with the media, there are a couple of jihadi groups in Uzbekistan. One of these has links with the ISIS. In April, a person belonging to that country was arrested in connection with a truck attack in Stockholm in which five persons were killed.
The use of moving trucks by individuals to carry out terror attacks targeting innocent people in the open is becoming a matter of concern. The first such terror attack was carried out in Nice on July 14, 2016, Bastille Day in which 86 people died. Subsequently, there was the London Bridge attack near the Houses of Parliament on March 22, 2017. That attack killed six people, with another 50 injured. New York has now entered the list.
