Islamic State | Pakistan

US right-wing influencers falsely linked New York’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to the militant Islamic State (IS) group, amplifying a fabricated statement that garnered millions of views on social media, researchers said on Thursday. Mamdani — the first Muslim and South Asian elected to lead America’s largest city — secured a decisive victory this week in the face of fierce attacks on his policy proposals and religious background. A slew of anti-Mamdani accounts on the Elon Musk-owned platform X have circulated a statement purportedly from IS titled “Operation Manhattan Project”, which alluded to an attack in New York City on Election Day against what it called “American aggression”. Among the influencers who linked the fake communique to Mamdani was Laura Loomer, a conservative influencer who has Trump’s ear. “The Muslims can’t think of a better way for the Muslims to celebrate the victory of a Muslim mayoral candidate today than by committing an ISIS (Islamic State) attack in NYC,” Loomer wrote in a post on...

A 20-year-old man from Afghanistan suspected of having links to an offshoot of the Islamic State group has been arrested in France, anti-terrorism prosecutors said on Saturday. The man was charged with participating in a criminal terrorist organisation and financing a terrorist enterprise, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) said. The suspect, who was arrested in Lyon last week, was placed in pre-trial detention. “He is suspected of having been in contact with IS-K (Islamic State in Khorasan),” the anti-terrorism unit said. The man is suspected of “sending funds” and helping translate and relay “the propaganda of this terrorist organisation”, PNAT added. The IS-K, the militant group’s branch in Afghanistan, also operates in Pakistan and former Soviet countries in Central Asia, including Uzbekistan. The group has been responsible for deadly attacks in Afghanistan and Russia, including an attack on a Moscow concert hall in March 2024 that killed 150 people. According to French daily Le Parisi...