FBI: Ohio State attacker likely inspired by Islamic State, al-Qaeda

Federal and local investigators believe the attack launched earlier this week at Ohio State University involved only Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who was likely inspired by slain al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki and anti-U.S. rhetoric spewed by the Islamic State terror group.

Angela Byers, chief of the FBI's Cincinnati Division, also said Wednesday that Artan was not known to law enforcement authorities prior to Monday's assault in which the 18-year-old man crashed a car into a campus crowd and then lashed out with a butcher knife before he was fatally shot by a campus police officer.

"He was not the subject of any investigation,'' Byers said in a briefing on the ongoing investigation.

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Eleven people were injured in the attack.

"All we know is that we believe (Artan) may have been inspired by Anwar al-Awlaki and ISIL,'' Byers said, referring to an acronym commonly used to identify the Islamic State.

As part of Wednesday's briefing, Byers also appealed for the public's assistance in establishing Artan's whereabouts in the hours before the 9:52 a.m. assault, and when he purchased a knife in a Columbus-area Wal-Mart earlier that day.

Authorities said it was not yet known whether the knife Artan purchased Monday was the one used in the attack.

Islamic State: OSU attacker was 'soldier' of group

Byers said authorities have interviewed dozens' of Artan's relatives, friends and other associates, though she cautioned the inquiry was not complete.

"It will take time,'' she said.

She said authorities continued to examine Artan's postings on Facebook shortly before Monday's assault in which the suspect said in part that he was "sick and tired'' of the persecution directed at fellow Muslims.

Late Tuesday, Amaq, the media arm of the Islamic State, described Artan as a "soldier'' of the terror group, heeding its call to lash out in the U.S., and in other coalition nations involved in the fight against the organization.

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A federal law enforcement official who was not authorized to comment publicly said there has been no evidence so far to indicate that Artan was directed by the terror group or was in direct contact with terror operatives prior to Monday's attack.

Noting Islamic State's claim, President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter early Wednesday, saying Artan, a Somali refugee, "should not have been in our country.''

Trump offered no justification for the statement, though in his bid for the Republican nomination last year he called for a ban on all Muslim travel to the U.S.

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Artan, a legal permanent resident, came to the United States with family members as Somali refugees in 2014, having spent some years before that in Pakistan.

Byers declined to comment on Artan's immigration status.