IS Claims Responsibility For Texas Cartoon Exhibit Attack

The Islamic State militant group took responsibility on
Tuesday for a failed attack on a Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet
Mohammad in which two gunmen were killed, with U.S. investigators probing the
veracity of the claim.

The Syria- and Iraq-based Islamic State (IS) said on its
official online radio station that “two soldiers of the caliphate”
carried out the attack on Sunday in Garland, a suburb of Dallas.

U.S. officials said while the Islamic State’s claim of
responsibility for the failed Texas attack was being examined closely,
investigators at this point did not know whether the dead militants launched
the attack under instructions from the group or whether IS was
opportunistically claiming credit for an attack in which it had little or no
direct or indirect involvement.

One U.S. official said investigators believed it was
possible, if not likely, that Islamic State played an “inspirational” rather
than “operational” role in the attack.