IS Claims Responsibility For Texas Cartoon Exhibit Attack

The Islamic State militant group took responsibility on Tuesday for a failed attack on a Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in which two gunmen were killed, with U.S. investigators probing the veracity of the claim.

The Syria- and Iraq-based Islamic State (IS) said on its official online radio station that "two soldiers of the caliphate" carried out the attack on Sunday in Garland, a suburb of Dallas.

U.S. officials said while the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility for the failed Texas attack was being examined closely, investigators at this point did not know whether the dead militants launched the attack under instructions from the group or whether IS was opportunistically claiming credit for an attack in which it had little or no direct or indirect involvement.

One U.S. official said investigators believed it was possible, if not likely, that Islamic State played an “inspirational” rather than “operational” role in the attack.