Gunman Claims Ties to Islamic State After Vienna Attack
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a recent shooting in Vienna, Austria. (Pixabay)
A gunman killed four people and injured dozens more in a terrorist incident in Vienna, Austria on November 3. Police shot and killed the lone attacker during a raid on his house. According to Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz, the terrorist supported the Islamic State.
The attacker, though born in Austria, had familial ties to North Macedonia. In April 2019, courts there sentenced him to 22 months in prison for attempting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State, but authorities released him early in December, says Interior Minister Karl Nehammer.
Early speculations pointed to a local synagogue as the primary target of the attack, however, Oskar Deutsch, head of the Jewish Community of Vienna, explains that the synagogue was closed at the time of the shooting.
At least 14 people with ties to the shooter have been arrested in and around Vienna so far, Austrian police report. Although authorities initially believed up to four individuals had taken part in the attack, police have determined that only one man undertook the assault.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the shooting in a statement released via the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Kurz called the event a “despicable terror attack”.
The attack has also raised calls for other European countries to continue crackdowns on rising Islamist extremism on the continent. France has recently seen acts of Islamist terrorism, including an attack in Paris last month that saw the beheading of a middle school teacher after he showed a satirical cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.
Officials in Vienna and Paris said on Thursday that they plan to work together in the fights against Islamic terrorism in Europe. French President Emmanuel Macron and Kurz plan to participate in a video conference next week with other EU officials to determine next steps that the bloc can take to protect citizens from terrorist attacks.