Claims responsibility
ISIS claims its first attack on US in an audio statement on the extremist group’s Al Bayan radio station. The message says “two soldiers of the caliphate” carried out the attack and promised the group would deliver more attacks in the future. No further details are provided and it is not known whether the group is opportunistically claiming the attack as its own. Following the claim ISIS-related groups celebrate online, with postings on IS-affiliated militant websites, including Twitter:
Following the IS claim of responsibility, IS members and followers celebrated online
How are you (Americans) going to live when we create our lone wolves to be nuclear bombs … by God, you can’t match us and in the heart of your homes you will see.
Let anyone who wants to draw the picture of our Prophet to think one thousand times before doing so, because our hands can reach his neck
Final Tweet
Simpson takes responsibility for the shooting on Twitter, around 20 minutes before the shooting starts.
The bro with me and myself have given bay’ah to Amirul Mu’mineen. May Allah accept us as mujahideen. Make dua #texasattacks
Bay’ah means to give an oath of allegiance, to Amir al-Mu’minin or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS. “Make dua” means to call out in prayer. He also tells his users to follow @_AbuHu55ain, who posts about the shooting before the account was suspended.