Did ISIS Attack London? Islamic State Claims Its 'Soldier' Carried Out Deadly Parliament Plot

The Islamic State group has officially claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack in England that left four people dead, including a police officer and the suspect. Sharing a statement through its Amaq News Agency Thursday, ISIS wrote that "the attacker yesterday in front of the British Parliament in London was a soldier of the Islamic State," according to SITE Intelligence Group.

ISIS said the suspect, who on Wednesday ran over several people on the Westminster Bridge in a car before crashing it near the House of Parliament, stabbing a police officer and being fatally shot by law enforcement, was "executing the operation in response to calls to target citizens of coalition nations."

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Earlier, the extremist group had chosen not to immediately confirm its involvement in the incident, though its followers celebrated the attack online. New York Times reporter Rukmini Callimachi, a well-connected ISIS expert, tweeted that she saw ISIS members sharing news updates on the stabbing as it unfolded and even creating a poster showing a burning Big Ben, Newsweek reported.

ISIS has begun regularly taking responsibility for violent acts around the world, causing pundits to become skeptical of their actual role. For example, ISIS claimed the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, last summer, but didn't advertise their plans ahead of time, according to the World Post. Lone-wolf attacks have become a way for ISIS to stay in the news and spread propaganda as it's lost territory in the Middle East.

"They’re careful about it. They couch their terms a bit," J.M. Berger, who co-wrote "ISIS: The State of Terror," told the Washington Post in 2016. "If they can credibly insert themselves into the narrative around an attack, they win, essentially."

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Authorities in the U.K. have been treating Wednesday's attack as a terrorist incident. The main suspect's name has not yet been released, though Prime Minister Theresa May revealed Thursday the man was British-born and had been previously investigated by the M15 Security Service "in relation to concerns about violent extremism," according to the Telegraph.