US right-wing influencers falsely linked New York's mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to the Islamic State group, amplifying a fabricated statement that garnered millions of views on social media, researchers said Thursday.

Mamdani -- the first Muslim and South Asian elected to lead America's largest city -- secured a decisive victory this week in the face of fierce attacks on his policy proposals and religious background.

A slew of anti-Mamdani accounts on the Elon Musk-owned platform X have circulated a statement purportedly from IS titled "Operation Manhattan Project," which alluded to an attack in New York City on Election Day against what it called "American aggression."

Among the influencers who linked the fake communique to Mamdani was Laura Loomer, a conservative influencer who has Tru

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