Orlando Nightclub Killer Omar Mateen was looking for support from Varied Islamist Extremist groups

Published on:

14 Jun 2016, 12:00 am

Omar Mateen expressed sympathy for various Islamist extremists
President Barack Obama said that Omar was most likely a homegrown extremist
The Florida shooting spree began early on Sunday when the club was packed with over 350 people

The man behind the Orlando nightclub killing, Omar Mateen expressed sympathy for various Islamist extremists. The FBI said on Monday that these extremists included the sworn enemies in the Middle East. No direct links have been found between Mateen and Islamic state, the US authorities reported.

President Barack Obama said that Omar was most likely a homegrown extremist.

Mateen, 29, was born to Afghan immigrants. He was shot dead by police who stormed the Pulse club with armored cars after a three-hour siege. In 911 calls during his rampage, the killer expressed allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said Mateen had made comments favorable to multiple armed Islamist movements and people, which "adds a little bit to the confusion about his motives."

"So far, we see no indication that this was a plot directed from outside the United States and we see no indication that he was part of any kind of network," Comey told reporters in Washington. "We're highly confident this killer was radicalized at least in some part through the internet."

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Islamic State, which controls territory in Iraq and Syria, reiterated on Monday a claim of responsibility, although it offered no signs to indicate coordination with the gunman.

In calls to authorities on Sunday, Mateen also mentioned support for the Boston Marathon bombers and a Florida man who became a Nusra Front suicide bomber in Syria, Comey said. Nusra is an al Qaeda offshoot which is at odds with Islamic State in Syria's civil war.

Co-workers reported Mateen to the FBI in 2013 after he had made "inflammatory and contradictory" statements, including a claim that he had family connections to al Qaeda and membership of Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah, a bitter rival.

The FBI's Miami office investigated Mateen for 10 months and interviewed him twice but found no evidence of a crime or connection with a militant group. Comey said the FBI was also "working to understand what role anti-gay bigotry may have played" in the attack.

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The massacre reverberated on the presidential campaign trail, where Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the two likely opponents in the Nov. 8 election, clashed over how to confront violent Islamist extremists.

Trump proposed suspending immigration to the United States from countries with a history of terrorism against America, Europe or U.S. allies, while Clinton warned against demonizing Muslims and called for tougher gun safety measures.

Obama is to visit Orlando on Thursday to pay respects to families of the victims.

'NEEDLES IN NATIONWIDE HAYSTACK'

The Orlando killings followed the massacre of 14 people in San Bernardino, California, last year and raised the question of whether the United States will have to confront jihadist attacks in the homeland for years to come.

A couple at a vigil to unite in the wake of the Orlando Pulse shooting

Comey said tracking apparent lone wolf attackers like Mateen was like finding "needles in a nationwide haystack" while also trying to work out what kind of people could become radicalized.

The Florida shooting spree began early on Sunday when the club was packed with over 350 people at a Latin music night. Mateen fired on the crowd with bullets from an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle and a pistol. Many fled the scene.

Mateen was trapped in a bathroom by an initial wave of officers. This allowed many people to flee. However many were still trapped in the washroom with him, leading to a standoff, Orlando Police Chief John Mina told reporters.

Police broke a hole in the wall for the people trapped to flee, after negotiating with Mateen for over three hours. Soon, the killer also emerged from this hole. He was shot dead by the officers, police said.

Some 53 people were wounded and 29 remain hospitalized at Orlando Regional Medical Center. Michael Cheatham, chief trauma surgeon at the hospital, told Fox News he expects all of the survivors in the hospital to survive.

The Orlando nightclub killing is considered one of America's deadliest mass shooting.

-prepared by Devika Todi (with inputs from Reuters). Twitter: devika_todi

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