Daesh Claims Responsibility for Orlando Massacre that Killed 50

Local Editor

Amaq News, a Syrian news agency with close ties to Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"], said the group is responsible for the attack on an Orlando club, which killed 50 people, and left 53 injured.

According to Amaq, a Daesh militant carried out the armed attack that targeted a club in the city of Orlando in Florida which left over 100 people dead or injured.

Though, Florida Senator Bill Nelson commented on the matter saying "That has not been confirmed. We'll have to see what those connections are once we get the details."

FBI had also stated Omar Mateen, had proclaimed his loyalty to Daesh in a 911 call, and mentioned the Tsarnaev brothers, who bombed the Boston Marathon in 2013.

The agency revealed that Mateen had been investigated in 2013, and 2014, over alleged social media threats and contacts with "a known suicide bomber", but that no charges had been brought forward, due to lack of evidence of any wrongdoing.

Last month, the Daesh spokesman urged Western-based Takfirid to execute attacks during holy month of Ramadan, which is now ongoing, "to punish the Crusaders" in a widely-distributed audio tape.

Mateen, a 29-year-old Muslim US citizen, who was brought up by a family of first-generation Afghan immigrants.

Earlier, Mateen's father, Mir Seddique, claimed the mass shooting, the worst in US history, had "nothing to do with religion."

For their part, the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR], the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned the Orlando mass shooting.

"We are sickened and heartbroken by this appalling attack. Our hearts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of the victims. There can never be any justification for such cowardly and criminal acts, period." CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement on Sunday.

Also on Sunday, US President Barack Obama called the deadly shooting in Orlando an "act of terror, act of hate," though the FBI said it had no immediate proofs of any direct ties between Omar and any foreign extremist groups.

Obama is to hold a meeting on Monday with heads of the US' main counter-terrorism bodies to discuss the investigation of the deadly shooting in Orlando, the White House said.

According to the statement, US Vice President Joe Biden, Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] Director James Comey, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, National Counterterrorism Center [NCTC] Director Nicholas Rasmussen and US Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates are expected to attend the meeting.

"Because our leaders are weak, I said this was going to happen - and it is only going to get worse," Trump said in a statement. "I am trying to save lives and prevent the next terrorist attack. We can't afford to be politically correct anymore."

The Orlando massacre has become the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States, surpassing the death toll from the 2007 incident at Virginia Tech, which claimed 32 lives.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team