MOSCOW — A car ran down a group of touring cyclists in the Central Asian state of Tajikistan over the weekend, killing four people from the United States, the Netherlands and Switzerland. On Monday, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a video obtained by Radio Free Europe on Monday that purports to show the attack, a car can be seen making a U-turn on a rural road and then speeding back through a group of fallen and injured cyclists. Tajik authorities said the occupants of the car then got out and stabbed and shot some of the survivors, leaving little doubt that the assault was intentional.

In a bulletin issued by the internal news agency of the Islamic State on Monday, the group described the assailants as “soldiers of the Islamic State” and said the attack was “in response to calls to target citizens of Coalition countries.”

That wording is a reference to a 2014 speech by the terrorist group’s former spokesman, in which he called on the group’s followers to carry out attacks in their countries in any way they could, including by using cars to crush pedestrians. The choice of language indicates that the militants view the attackers in Tajikistan as having been inspired by propaganda, and that they were not directly deployed by the terrorist organization.