Texas shooting: Islamic State claims responsibility for first US attack as gunmen named

Two jihadist gunmen targeting a competition to draw caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed have been shot dead in what is believed to be the first Islamic State-inspired terrorist attack on US soil.

Carrying assault rifles and wearing body armour the men opened fire in a car park outside the “Mohammed Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest” in Garland, a suburb of Dallas, Texas - injuring a security guard before being shot dead by a traffic policeman with a pistol.

There was no claim of responsibility but the FBI said it believed the attack may have been instigated or directed by a foreign-based terrorist organisation such as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

One of the gunmen was identified as Elton Simpson, 30, from Phoenix, who had been investigated five years ago by the FBI over plans to fight in Somalia.

The second gunman was Simpson’s room-mate Nadir Soofi, 34, police told the Washington Post.

Minutes before the attack one of the men, tweeting under a nom du guerre, appeared to pledged allegiance to lsil leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Twitter, and messages of support were posted by Isil followers.

Parallels were dawn with the Paris massacre in January that claimed 12 lives at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had used depictions of Prophet Mohammed.

It also echoed another shooting the following month targeting Lars Vilks, a cartoonist who had depicted the Prophet Mohammed, in Copenhagen. The Copenhagen event was organised by Stop the Islamisation of Nations (SION) - and an offshoot of SION also organised the Texas event.

The White House said Barack Obama had been briefed about the Texas attack. The president’s spokesman, Josh Earnest, said: “There is no act of expression, even if it’s offensive, that justifies an act of violence.”

Around 200 people had gathered at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland for the competition in which 350 drawings had been submitted to compete for a $10,000 (£6,100) prize, or a $2,500 “People’s Choice Award”.

Attendees also heard a speech by Geert Wilders, the far-Right Dutch politician and anti-Islamic campaigner who is on an al-Qaeda hit list.

He was flanked by security guards during his 15-minute appearance on a podium beneath a giant US flag.

The drawing event was organised by American Freedom Defence Initiative (AFDI). Its co-founder, Pamela Geller, 56, is banned from entering the United Kingdom, following a ruling by Theresa May in 2013 preventing her from speaking at a rally for the far-Right English Defence League rally in London.

Jobin Panicker, a local television reporter who was outside the conference centre, said: “We started to hear what sounded like firecrackers, three to five very faint shots. We now know that those were handgun shots. And then after that, some high-powered gunshots.”

Other witnesses described hearing about 20 shots coming from a car, and then two single shots.

Police said they had been spent months preparing security for the event. A police car was stationed outside the front door and a SWAT team was nearby.

The shoot-out lasted about 15 seconds.

The injured security guard, Bruce Joiner, was shot in the ankle and later released from hospital. Joe Harn, Garland police spokesman, said: “Obviously they were there to shoot people. We were prepared for something like this.”

An FBI bomb squad spent all night using a robot to examine the suspects’ car for explosives while their bodies lay on the ground nearby. No explosives were found.

Following the shooting Mr Wilders said: “I am shocked. I just spoke for half an hour about the cartoons, Islam and freedom of speech and I had just left the premises. This is an attack on the liberties of all of us.”

Simpson, 30, was convicted in 2011 of lying to the FBI about his intention to go to Somalia, and sentenced to three years probation.

According to court documents he told an informant: “It’s time to go to Somalia, brother. We know plenty of brothers from Somalia. We’re going to make it to the battlefield. It’s time to roll.”

He also told the informant he was “tired of living under non-Muslims” and had explored the possibility of carrying out martyrdom operations.

Simpson’s father said he worked in a dentist’s office in Phoenix. Dunstan Simpson told ABC News his son made a “bad choice”.

He said: “We are Americans and we believe in America. What my son did reflects very badly on my family.”

In mainstream Islamic tradition any physical depiction of the Prophet Mohammed is considered blasphemous, and followers of Isil had for days been using social media to call for “brothers” in the US to attack the Texas event.

The winner of the drawing competition was a former Muslim who said he had drawn Prophet Mohammed two dozen times.

Speaking at the event, before the shooting, he said: "It's about free speech. It's about us not being told what we can and can't do as Americans, as free people. as Westerners."

A week ago the US Transport Security Administration warned of a possible imminent attack on US soil.

Less than half an hour before the shooting at 7pm a message was placed on Twitter marked “Texas Attack”.

It said: “My bro’ and myself have given bay’ah to Amirul Mu’mineen. May Allah accept us as mujahideen. Make dua.”

“Bay’ah” means “oath of allegiance” in Arabic, and “Amirul Mu’mineen” means “commander of the faithful,” a title attributed by his followers to Baghdadi.

The Twitter account, which has been deleted, was headed “Shariah is Light” and featured a picture of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

According to unconfirmed reports, the Twitter account was set up by Simpson.

The monitoring group SITE also reported that a known member of Isil had boasted the attack was carried out by its supporters.

In a series of social media messages a jihadist named as Abu Hussain Al-Britani, and identified as British Islamic State fighter Junaid Hussain, said: “2 of our brothers just opened fire at the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) art exhibition in Texas.”

FBI agents quickly raided Simpson’s home in Phoenix, Arizona. According to neighbours, Simpson’s brother lived in the same apartment as him.

The FBI had reportedly launched a fresh investigation into Simpson in recent months, which included some surveillance, after he posted a series of pro-Islamic State messages on social media.

According to Kristina Sitton, the lawyer who represented him when he was sentenced to probation four years ago, Simpson converted to Islam while in high school.

She said: "I represented some of the worst of the worst, and I never would have thought he would do this. He was kind of a talker, but he seemed harmless."

Neighbour Craig Gibbons said: “They were really into the Muslim thing. They would talk to you for a couple hours about it.”

The AFDI has been described by civil rights groups as a an anti-Muslim hate group. It billed the evening as a “free speech” event and had spent $30,000 on extra security.

The AFDI has become one of the most high profile ant-Islamic groups in America since leading a campaign against a proposed Islamic centre near Ground Zero in New York.

During the event statements including “Islam doesn’t belong in America” were reportedly greeted with cheers.

Ms Geller posed for photographs with a SWAT team before the event. After the shooting, she said: “The war is here. This is war on free speech. What are we going to do? Are we going to surrender to these monsters?”

“The Islamic jihadists are determined to suppress our freedom of speech violently. They struck in Paris and Copenhagen recently, and now in Texas.”

Douglas Athas, Garland mayor, said there had been concern about a possible terrorist attack at the event.

He said: “That’s why we had heightened security in the area, but we all swear to uphold the constitution, free speech, free assembly and in this case perhaps, free religion. So in this case they were free to use the building.”

Bosch Fawstin, the cartoonist and former Muslim who won the drawing competition, later said on Twitter: "They came to kill us and died for it. Justice."

His winning entry depicted the Prophet Mohammed wielding a sword and saying "You can't draw me".

The Southern Poverty Law Centre, a civil rights group, accused Mr Fawstin of espousing "hate views" and said it would add him to its list of US hate groups.