Sayfullo Saipov: how the New York terrorist was radicalised

Sayfullo Saipov was considered one of the “lucky ones” when he came to the US and won citizenship in a green-card lottery in 2010, The New York Times says.

The 29-year-old Uzbekistan native had grown up in a well-off family who practiced Islam, but didn’t embrace extremism. In the US, he married another Uzbek immigrant and fathered three children, living at various times in Ohio, Florida and New Jersey. He drove trucks for a living and worked as an Uber driver, but wanted to enter into the hotel business. He often lost jobs, however, and developed an explosive temper.

“An Uzbek community leader in Stow, Ohio, called him something of a hothead - but not as someone you would ever see morphing into a terrorist killer,” the NBC News website reports.

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Outwardly, Saipov didn’t meet the standards of an extremist: he liked “fancy” clothes, something looked down upon by conservative Islamists, had only a basic knowledge of the Koran, and was often late for Friday prayers. Despite this, Saipov - a man whose only previous run-ins with the law were over driving tickets - became “increasingly aggressive”, the BBC says. He is believed to have been radicalised online while in the US.

Mirrakhmat Muminov, a fellow truck driver and Uzbek community activist, told The New York Times that Saipov first started to change in 2015, growing out his beard, because he had “monsters inside”.

A year ago, Saipov began downloading Islamic State videos and embarked on a year-long plan of attack. Ninety videos were found on his mobile phone; one featured an Isis leader asking what Muslims are doing to avenge deaths in Iraq.

On 31 October, Saipov turned his plan into reality, driving his truck along a Lower Manhattan bike path for about 14 blocks near the National September 11 Memorial. Eight people died and 11 were injured. Today New York’s Daily News reports sources who say that the killer is rejoicing as he recovers at the city’s Bellevue Hospital after being shot by police as he tried to flee after the attack.

“He’s laughing. He’s very happy with what he did,” according to a source briefed by a hospital staffer on the floor, the newspaper reports. “He feels accomplished.”