CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State's Amaq news agency said on Sunday that the Islamist militant group was responsible for the shooting that killed at least 50 people in a massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

"The armed attack that targeted a gay night club in the city of Orlando in the American state of Florida which left over 100 people dead or injured was carried out by an Islamic State fighter," Amaq said.


(Reporting by Ali Abdelaty; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0YY0VU

Syria (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for the attack early Sunday morning at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida that left at least 50 dead and 53 injured.

The group's official radio station, al-Bayan, said Monday morning that, "Over 100 Crusaders killed and injured after an attack on their gathering at a night club in America."

"We begin from America, where Allah has enabled brother Omar Mateen, one of the soldiers of the Caliphate in America, to carry out a raid where he was able to infiltrate a Crusaders' gathering at a gay night club in Orlando, Florida. Allah enabled him to inflict heavy casualties amongst the filthy Crusaders. He killed and injured over a hundred of them. This is the biggest raid to be carried in America after the raid of Manhattan 16 years ago. All praise to Allah."

ISIS has in the past claimed responsibility for attacks that did not originate within their command structure or territory, and analysts say this latest claim still does not prove ISIS was directly involved in the shooting.

The gunman behind the mass shooting has been identified as Port St. Lucie resident
Omar Mateen, CBS News confirms. Officials are still investigating the exact motives for the shooting, and both ties to radical Islam as well as a general hate crime motivation are being considered.

A U.S. intel source tells CBS News that Mateen called 911 during the shooting from the bathroom. They called him back and that is when Mateen pledged alliance to ISIS and al Baghdadi.
The source tells CBS News that Mateen made two foreign trips, one in 2011 to Dubai and one to Saudi Arabia in 2012.

He was not on a current watch list. He was on the Terrorist Screening database when the FBI was questioning him. The source tells CBS News he was removed when the FBI closed their investigation.

The 2013 investigation began when Mateen told co-workers and others he knew the Tsarnaev brothers who were responsible for the Boston marathon bombings.

The FBI confirmed at a press conference Sunday afternoon that federal authorities twice looked into Mateen in the past.

In 2014, Mateen was questioned because of what FBI Special Agent Ron Hopper called a possible connection to a suicide bomber
Hopper said agents contacted Mateen three times, but ultimately determined there was no reason to pursue an investigation.

"Those interviews turned out to be inconclusive so there was nothing to keep the investigation going," Hopper said.

Mateen's ex-wife told The Washington Post that she met him online about eight years ago and decided to move to Florida and marry him. The ex-wife, who wasn't named in the report, says at first the marriage was normal, but then he became abusive.

They were together for only a few months and her parents intervened when they learned Mateen had assaulted her. She says he wasn't very religious and gave no signs of radical Islam.

She said he owned a small-caliber handgun and worked as a guard at a nearby facility for juvenile delinquents.

Mateen's ex-wife said his family was from Afghanistan, but her ex-husband was born in New York. His family later moved to Florida.

www.cbsnews.com/news/mass-shooting-at-orlando-nightclub-pulse-isis-takes-responsibility/

WASHINGTON — While U.S. investigators are still trying to determine if there were any actual links between the Orlando shooter, 29-year-old American-born Omar Mateen, and the Islamic State terror group, Islamic State supporters moved quickly to claim responsibility.

The Amaq News Agency, essentially a propaganda arm of IS, issued statements both in Arabic and English Sunday. The English language statement said the nightclub attack was “carried out by an Islamic State fighter,” and it claimed more than 100 homosexuals had been killed.

“That’s a legitimate claim,” said Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“But that doesn’t mean that Mateen was directed or acting under the orders of the Islamic State,” he said. “It could be that Amaq is just playing off news reports that say Mateen swore allegiance to Islamic State either before or during the attack.”
Suspected Orlando shooter Omar Mateen.

(Orlando Police Department)
Still, experts worry this is the type of attention that IS craves, especially given the growing string of setbacks the terror group and self-proclaimed caliphate has been suffering on the battlefield in Syria and Iraq, as well as in Libya.

“From their perspective, it doesn’t matter if he (Mateen) was acting under the orders of Islamic State or not,” Joscelyn said. “It’s a big PR win to have one of their supporters do it.”

Early indications are that the Orlando nightclub attack may have, at least briefly, reenergized IS followers on social media.

“IS English language supporters on Twitter attempting a comeback,” terror expert and author J.M. Berger posted on his @intelwire Twitter account Sunday, adding “one account tweeting 130+ per hour.”
Jeff

http://m.voanews.com/a/is-claims-orlando-attack/3372870.html

Donald Trump is the only way to end this fools called Islamic terrorists.