Isil claims to be behind Tajikistan attack on cyclists

ISIL has claimed responsibility for a car and knife attack in Tajikistan that killed four American and European cyclists and has released a video of the men it said were behind the murders.

The assailants rammed the cyclists with a car in the Khatlon region, which borders Afghanistan, then attacked them with knives and an axe, according to the authorities.

Two Americans, one Swiss and one Dutch citizen were killed, and two other cyclists were injured.

Yesterday, the news agency of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant released a video of the five men it said had executed the attack on Sunday posing without face masks in front of an Isil flag.

In the film, a man speaking mostly in Russian with Arabic subtitles, who appeared to be the same Hussein Abdusamadov identified by the Tajik interior ministry as the ringleader of the attack, pledged allegiance to Isil leader Abu Bakr al-baghdadi.

The news agency had previously said the attackers “were soldiers of the Islamic State and carried out the attack in response to calls to target the citizens of the coalition countries”.