An American couple who believed evil was a "make-believe" concept were killed in an Islamic State atrocity in late July, according to reports.

Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghehan of Washington DC were travelling through Tajikistan on bikes with other tourists when they were attacked on July 29.

Video shot by the militants showed a car passing the group, before doing a sudden U-turn and driving straight at them, reports the New York Times. Four of the cyclists were killed, including both Mr Austin and Ms Geoghehan, both aged 29.

A few days later Islamic State released a video claiming responsibility for the attack.

It's since emerged the American couple were documenting their trip in a blog and on Instagram. They had both quit their jobs in 2017, Mr Austin saying he'd "grown tired of spending the best hours of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, of colouring the best years of my life in swaths of grey and beige".

Before Tajikistan, the pair had travelled through Europe, Africa, the Middle East and other parts of central Asia.

It was in April when Mr Austin wrote his thoughts on "evil", after having dinner with a local Arabic-speaking family.

"You watch the news and you read the papers and you're led to believe that the world is a big, scary place. People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil. People are axe murderers and monsters and worse.

"I don't buy it. Evil is a make-believe concept we've invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own - it's easier to dismiss an opinion as abhorrent than strive to understand it.

"Badness exists, sure, but even that's quite rare. By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind. No greater revelation has come from our journey than this."

While some news sites have claimed the point of the duo's journey through central Asia was to "prove human kindness", fact-checking website Snopes said there's no evidence they were trying to prove anything.

"Austin and Geoghegan were not acting as liberal, idealist missionaries, despite the impression that [headlines] might have created. Like many tourists who travelled beyond their own cultural comfort zones, they appeared to have been simply struck by the generosity and thoughtfulness they encountered, just as they took note of moments of hostility or unhelpfulness."

The US State Department listed Tajikistan as a "low risk" country in terms of travel, at the time of the attack. It has since upgraded it to "exercise increased caution".

Snopes says left-wing politics and culture site Pluralist appears to have started the incorrect rumour, but it's since been picked up by others - including far-right and fake news sites like Infowars.

Newshub.