MOSCOW, NOV 01 (DNA) – The president of Uzbekistan on Wednesday offered to help US authorities in the investigation of the attack in New York where a truck driver, reportedly an Uzbek national, mowed down passersby, killing eight.

 “Uzbekistan is ready to use all forces and resources to help in the investigation of this act of terror,” President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said, offering condolences to US President Donald Trump in a statement.

A pickup driver on Tuesday ran over cyclists and pedestrians before striking a school bus in the city’s first deadly attack blamed on terror since September 11, 2001. Television networks identified the 29-year-old perpetrator as an Uzbek citizen living in Florida.

President Trump denounced him as “very sick” and “deranged.” Mirziyoyev’s statement did not officially confirm the identity or nationality of the attacker. “We condemn any forms and manifestations of extremism and terrorism,” he said.

“This merciless and very cruel crime cannot have any justification.” Uzbekistan, a poor majority-Muslim former Soviet state in Central Asia, has become a source of recruits for the Islamic State and other militant groups, along with other Central Asian countries.

The International Crisis Group estimated this year that between 2,000 and 4,000 militants from Central Asia may have signed up under the banner of IS.=DNA

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