Alwaght- ISIS Terrorist group has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on a night club in Orlando, Florida, which has killed 50 people, and left 53 injured. The attack has been termed as the worst mass shooting in the United States.
"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 ISIS fighter," Amaq News claimed.
The shooting, which took place in the early hours of Sunday, was carried out by Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old US citizen, who was brought up by a family of first-generation Afghan immigrants.
Earlier, Mateen’s father, Mir Seddique, claimed the incident had “nothing to do with religion,” and speculated that it was caused by his son’s dislike of public displays of homosexuality.
He said: "We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident. We weren't aware of any action he is taking. We are in shock like the whole country."
Reports indicate that the targeted nightclub was frequented by immoral groups of people practicing same sex relationships.
Mateen was killed by a SWAT team while holding hostages in the nightclub. During his shooting spree he killed 50 and wounded another 53 people.
But US security sources told various news outlets that Mateen had been investigated in 2013, and 2014, over alleged social media threats, but that no charges had been brought forward, due to lack of evidence.
FBI officials on the scene also said they suspected Mateen of “radical leanings” but did not rule out any explanation for the murder spree at this point.
Peter King, a member of US House of Representatives, said Sunday that a perpetrator of deadly Orlando attacks trained in the US to use weapons.
Omar Mateen, who several years ago changed his name Omar Mir Seddique and added the Mateen part to his official name, is now said to have pledged allegiance to ISIS. US media outlets claim Omar Mateen had committed himself to ISIS before carrying out the bloodiest mass murder in US history in Orlando on Sunday.
Officials say Mateen had two firearms licenses, one for concealed carry and the other as a security officer. During the killing spree, Mateen was armed with an AR-15-type assault rifle, which has become the signature weapon of mass killers in the US.
Known as "America's gun," it is owned by around 3.7 million American households, making it the country's most popular rifle.
The military-grade weapon was used by Adam Lanza in December 2012 to shoot dead 26 people at Sandy Hook in Newtown, while the San Bernardino terrorists used AR-15s when they killed 14 people in December 2015. It was also used to kill nine people at Umpqua Community College in October 2015. And in July 2012 James Eagan Holmes used an AR-15-type assault rifle to kill 12 people in Aurora, wounding a further seventy.
In the state of Florida, anyone over the age of 18 can buy an AR-15 as no state permit is required. The same goes for pistols and shotguns.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), firearms are the cause of death for more than 33,000 people in the United States every year, a number that includes accidental discharge, murder and suicides.
Overall the death rate involving guns in the United States is 10 times higher than 22 other high-income countries, researchers from the University of Nevada-Reno and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have found.
Meanwhile, the Orlando attack is once again expected to reinforce Islamophobia across the US. Already US presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has made a reputation for his Islamophobic remarks, took to his Twitter account after the shooting, saying that the incident proved him right on what he termed as “radical Islamic terrorism."
Elsewhere, in response to the shooting in Orlando, members of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations are urging Muslims to donate blood to those who are injured.
"We condemn this monstrous attack and offer our heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all those killed or injured," Rasha Munarak, the CAIR Florida Orlando regional coordinator. "The Muslim community joins our fellow Americans in repudiating anyone or any group that would claim to justify or excuse such an appalling act of violence."
CAIR-Florida Communications Director, Wilfredo A. Ruiz noted that it is also unclear if the shooter is a person who practices any faith.
"It’s an Arab name, but we don’t know if he is a Muslim," Ruiz said. "We don’t know if this guy is a practicing or non-practicing."
Ruiz said that CAIR condemns the shooting and all "acts of terror."
"We have a strong, unequivocal condemnation of this monstrous and criminal attack," Ruiz said. "This is an act of violence and it has no space in our community and no space for anyone who claims to be a Muslim."
ISIS Takfiri terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the Orlando mass shooting while the US government is blamed for creating or encouraging the emergence of the terrorist group in the West Asia region. ISIS terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control parts of Syria and Iraq. They have been engaged in crimes against humanity and terrorists attacks across the world including Western countries.
Apparently, US is using ISIS in three ways: to attack its enemies in the West Asia region, to serve as a pretext for US military intervention abroad, and at home to foment a manufactured domestic threat, used to justify the unprecedented expansion of invasive domestic surveillance and ostracize Muslims.
