Terror strikes New York: 8 dead in truck rampage
Uzbek attacker mows down people on cycle track in Manhattan; Trump tweets ‘Enough!’
WASHINGTON: An Uzbek man, apparently inspired by the Islamic State, ploughed a pickup truck through a bike path in Manhattan, killing eight people and injuring at least a dozen in the deadliest terror attack in New York City since 9/11.
Sayfullo Saipov, 29, was heard shouting “Allah-u-Akbar” during the rampage on Tuesday afternoon, witnesses said. He was shot in the abdomen by a police officer when he emerged from the truck after it collided with a school bus at 3.05 pm (1905 GMT), blocks away from the 9/11 Memorial. He was walking in the middle of the street brandishing two weapons, which turned out to be paintball and pellet guns. Saipov was in police custody and being treated at a hospital.
“This was an act of terror and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives who had no idea what was about to hit them,” New York mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said, based on a preliminary investigations, this was a lone wolf attack carried out by the suspect acting alone. This was “one individual who meant to cause pain and harm and probably death and the resulting terror. That was the purpose.”
President Donald Trump tweeted about what was the first terror attack on the American mainland in his term, and in his hometown: “We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!”
Trump also said he had directed his administration to “step up” extreme vetting.
Authorities did not disclose the attacker’s identity but news reports said Saipov came to the US in 2010 and had a green card. He had a Florida driver’s licence and had apparently been staying in New Jersey, from where he drove to neighbouring New York.
Saipov reportedly pledged loyalty to the IS in handwritten notes in Arabic found near the truck, the US media cited law enforcement officials as saying. It was not clear where he was radicalised, and investigators did not discover evidence showing direct ties between Saipov and the IS.
This was also the first instance of a terror attack in New York City involving fatalities after the 9/11 attacks that killed 2,606 people, including 34 from India.
WASHINGTON: Within hours of the Manhattan terror attack on Tuesday, President Donald Trump ordered the department of homeland security to “step up” the already extreme vetting of visitors to the US, saying, ominously, this wasn’t the time to be politically correct.
The day after, Trump, joined by allies on the extreme right, launched a blistering attack on the Democrats for supporting a visa programme Sayfullo Saipov, the 29-year-old attacker from Uzbekistan, is said to have used to enter the US in 2010. He was on a green card.
“I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!” Trump tweeted on Tuesday night. But he did not explain “step up” and there was no word from the department of homeland security.
On Wednesday morning, Trump turned on the visa programme and immigration. “The terrorist came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program’, a Chuck Schumer beauty,” he tweeted, referring to a state department programme that grants 50,000 visas through an annual lottery to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the US.
Schumer is a Democratic senator from New York who supported the programme in 1990, and it became part of a wider immigrationpackagethatpassed with bipartisan support in Congress and was signed into law by a Republican president, George HW Bush, the same year.
“I guess it’s not too soon to politicise a tragedy,” Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, hit back on Twitter.
He was joined by conservatives as well, such as leading commentator Erik Erickson, who tweeted, “Dear GOP, why not wait to politicise the attack by going straight to immigration tough talk? Were a gun involved, you’d ask the D’s (Democrats) to wait.”
Trump went on to argue for his proposed merit-based immigration system: “We are fighting hard for Merit Based immigration, no more Democrat Lottery Systems. We must get MUCH tougher (and smarter).”
Republicans have for long opposed the diversity programme.
It wasn’t clear if Trump’s order to “step up” the extreme vetting programme for visitors was related in any way to the diversity visa programme or his controversial travel ban on the entry of visitors from certain Muslim-majority countries or presaged further changes in the vetting process.