Did ISIS REALLY recruit Las Vegas shooter? Stephen Paddock claim causes terror confusion

ISLAMIC State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for yesterday’s horrific Las Vegas attack - but are the killer cult really behind the deadliest mass shooting in US history?

ISIS said the Las Vegas shooting was carried out by Stephen Paddock, who they claimed was one of their soldiers known as “Abu Abd El Bar”.

They said Paddock, who killed 59 people and injured 527 when he opened fire from the Mandalay Bay hotel onto a crowd at a music festival, had recently adopted Islam.

A statement issued via the Amaq propaganda news agency, which is linked to ISIS, said: “The Las Vegas attacker is a soldier of the Islamic State who carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting coalition countries.

“The attacker who carried out the operation in Las Vegas converted to Islam months before the attack.”

However, crime investigators quickly ruled out terror as a motive and the FBI stated Paddock, 64, had “no connection with any international terrorist group”.

The killer’s brother Eric echoed this claim, stating “this wasn’t a terror attack” because “he had no political affiliation, no religious affiliation”.

Rukmini Callimachi, an ISIS expert with the New York Times, speculated the terror cult was lying or mistaken in their claims of responsibility.

She said on Twitter: “The language they use suggests they see the shooter as inspired by their ideology (he ‘responded to calls’) as opposed to directed by them.

“But given what we know already about the shooter, I’m wondering if this is one of their major misses.”

She said Paddock’s age in particular made him an unlikely ISIS recruit.

Ms Callimachi said: “The demographics matter. If this guy had any ISIS ties, he would be not just an outlier but the oldest ISIS American recruit by a decade.”

She highlighted confusion among ISIS supporters on social media, with some expressing doubt Paddock was actually recruited by the death cult.

One screenshot she shared of an internet chat featured one supporter of the sick terror group asking for proof one of their fighters was behind the atrocity.

He said: “The question I keep asking is how to confirm he was indeed a khalifa soldier and not a random actor.”

Another responded by telling the supporter he could either doubt the claim or trust his heart and “believe the Muslims”.

Ms Callimachi concluded by stating she did not believe ISIS was linked to the attack.

She said: “There's zero evidence to date that Vegas was ISIS-linked. I don't know what to make of ISIS' loud insistence.”

The question then remains: why did Stephen Paddock carry out the Las Vegas shooting?