Daesh claims responsibility for the Vienna attack

Daesh took responsibility for the attack in Vienna on Tuesday and identified the perpetrator of the attack that killed four people and injured 22.  

In an official statement issued through the social network Telegram, the Jihadist organisation reported that "a soldier of the caliphate" targeted people in Vienna "with an automatic weapon, a pistol and a knife, killing and injuring some 30 people, including a police officer and other members of the security forces", without detailing the exact number of dead.

In a subsequent statement reported by the Amaq news agency, which is affiliated with IS, the group published a photograph of the attacker, identifying him as Abu Dayen al-Alban and saying he was of Albanian origin. Previously, the Albanian origin of the presumed author of the attack had been reported.  

In a video published by Amaq, the attacker swore loyalty to the new IS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi - who succeeded Abu Bakr al Bagdadi who was killed a year ago - as he holds three arms with which he allegedly committed the attack. "The Islamic State is still present," the perpetrator concluded in the video.

The Austrian authorities identified the attacker as Kujtim Fejzulai, born in Vienna of Albanian-Macedonian parents, who had been sentenced to 22 months in prison for attempting to join Daesh in the Syrian war. On 25 April 2019 he was sentenced to prison for attempting to travel to Syria to join the Daesh terrorist group and on 5 December last was released on early parole on the basis of the privileges granted to a young adult by the Juvenile Court Law (JGG), according to the APA agency. 

"He was definitely a follower of Daesh," stressed Karl Nehammer, Austria's interior minister, after previously stating that "at least one Islamist terrorist" was involved in the attack.