Orlando (Florida): The Islamic State today claimed responsibility for the mass murder at an Orlando gay club that killed 50 people and left more than 53 injured.
The terror group said in a radio bulletin that the shooting was carried out by "one of the soldiers of the caliphate".
"God allowed Omar Mateen, one of the soldiers of the caliphate in America, to carry out an attack entering a crusader gathering in a night club... in Orlando in Florida, killing and wounding more than 100 of them," a bulletin from Al-Bayan radio said.
Omar Mateen, who pledged allegiance to ISIS and gunned down 50 people early Sunday at a gay nightclub in Orlando, was gunned down by the police early Sunday.
He had carried an assault rifle and a pistol into the Pulse club at about 2 am and started shooting. Mateen then took hostages, holding them for hours.
At about 5 am, a SWAT team crashed into the club and killed the 29-year-old shooter.
US President Barack Obama decried the “horrific” mass shooting as an act of “terror” and an “act of hate”, targeting a place of "solidarity and empowerment" for gays and lesbians. He urged Americans to decide "if that's the kind of country we want to be," as he reminded the countrymen of the easy access to firearms people enjoy in America.
The president, who has proclaimed June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, called the attack "heartbreaking" for the LGBT community. He said the site of the shooting was more than a nightclub because it was a place where people came "to raise awareness, to speak their minds and to advocate for their civil rights."
"The shooter targeted a night club where people came together to be with friends to dance and to sing — to live," Obama said.
The president made no new, specific call for stricter gun laws. Though he lamented "how easy it is" for people to get their hands on weapons, Obama appeared resigned to the likelihood that he'll be unable as president to substantially address the mass shootings that have proliferated in recent years.
(With PTI inputs)
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