Isis claims responsibility but is careful not to say it orchestrated attack

A carefully worded claim of responsibility by Isis suggested the Westminster attacker was inspired — rather than orchestrated — by the jihadist group.

A statement released yesterday by the official Amaq media agency of Isis ( Islamic State) described the assailant as a “soldier of the caliphate” but gave no other details.

Isis channels on the Telegram app, an encrypted messaging application, shared pictures of a man wrongly accused of being the attacker, fuelling speculation that the group did not actually know who was behind Thursday’s murders.

The Telegram app is favoured by jihadists because governments are unable to hack communications.

Isis almost never claims attacks it is not in some way responsible for.

Some killers have simply pledged allegiance to the group and acted on its general call to arms, while others have had guidance on everything from the target to the method and the timing. In the case of the Istanbul nightclub bombing on New Year’s Eve, the assailant was coached by Isis handlers, who funded and helped plan every stage of the attack.

In other instances, such as the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Florida last year, the connection was much more tenuous.

Experts say that even where attacks appear to have been perpetrated by “lone wolves”, they are rarely acting in complete isolation.

“Even the inspired attacks have tended to occur within the context of a network — in other words, accomplices, which means by definition they are not lone,” said Kyle Orton, Middle East analyst at the Henry Jackson Society thinktank.

The downplaying of Isis’ direct role in the European attacks had deadly consequences last year when the connections between a series of plots in France were missed, and the diversion of the security forces helped allow the co- ordinated attacks in Paris of November 13, 2015, when suicide bombers and gunmen targeted the Stade de France, restaurants, and the Bataclan concert hall, killing 130.

Thirty- one of the 38 Isis- related European plots have involved either online or in- person direction by Isis.

It is not clear whether the London attacker, Khalid Masood, had travelled to Iraq or Syria, but most attacks carried out in Isis’ name have been by home- grown terrorists.

As Isis came under threat in the socalled caliphate, it encouraged foreign supporters to carry out attacks at home.