RIYADH
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group has claimed responsibility for last week's shooting of a Danish citizen in Saudi Arabia, according to recorded footage broadcast on websites linked to the group.
The footage, in which the shooting was described as the ISIL's first operation by its Saudi Arabia branch, featured a militant shooting from a vehicle at another one which Danish national David Hoeppner had allegedly been driving.
On November 22, local Saudi media reported that a Danish national, later identified as David Hoeppner, was injured in the shoulder after an unidentified gunman fired at his car on a highway in capital Riyadh.
The footage, which could not be independently verified, included a previous speech by the militant group's leader – known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – urging his supporters in Saudi Arabia to launch militant operations on its territories.
Saudi and Danish authorities have yet to comment on the footage.
The footage on the alleged shooting of Hoeppner was also released shortly after Egyptian-based Wilayat Sinai militant group – which was known as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis before swearing allegiance to the ISIL - claimed responsibility for the abduction and execution of an American petroleum expert in Egypt's Western Desert, four months after he was declared dead in a carjacking in the area.
The attack on Hoeppener was the second to target foreigners in Riyadh in less than two months. In mid-October, a U.S. national was shot dead and a second injured in an attack at a petrol station in Riyadh. The assailant was injured and arrested following a shootout with security forces.
However, the Saudi government had asserted at the time that the attacker had no links with extremist groups, saying that he had been sacked by the Vinnell Arabia, a U.S. defense contractor where the two Americans were working.
The October attack came after Washington warned U.S. nationals of possible attacks over an ongoing military campaign against the ISIL militant group.
Saudi Arabia has joined a U.S.-led campaign to attack targets of ISIL, which has recently seized vast swathes of territory in both Iraq and Syria.
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