A U.S. Army veteran who plowed a truck into a crowd of New Year’s Day revelers had pledged allegiance to the banned militant group Islamic State (ISIS), but acted alone in the attack that killed at least 14 people, the Bureau said. Federal Investigations (FBI). he said Thursday.
The suspect, who was shot dead at the scene after firing at police, was identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texan who once served in Afghanistan.
He drove from Houston to New Orleans on December 31 and posted five videos on Facebook between 1:29 a.m. and 3:02 a.m. the morning of the attack in which he said he supported ISIS, the militant group with fighters in Iraq and Syria, according to the FBI. saying.
In the first video, Jabbar explains that he had previously planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned that media coverage was not focusing on the “war between believers and unbelievers,” said FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia. at a press conference. .
Jabbar also said in the videos that he had joined IS before last summer and provided his last will and testament, Raia said.
“This was an act of terrorism,” Raia said. “It was a premeditated and evil act.”
New Orleans officials said the Sugar Bowl college football game that was scheduled for Wednesday as a New Year’s Day tradition would take place Thursday afternoon. The city will also host the National Football League’s Super Bowl next month.
The FBI said there did not appear to be any link between the attack in New Orleans and the episode in Las Vegas on the same day that a Tesla Cybertruck packed with gasoline canisters and large fireworks mortars exploded in flames outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. Vegas. just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House on January 20.
Among the injured victims in the New Orleans attack were two police officers wounded by gunfire from the suspect, which took place just three hours after the start of the new year on Bourbon Street in the historic French Quarter.
At least 15 people were killed, including the suspect, the FBI said. Among the victims was the mother of a four-year-old boy who had just moved into a new apartment after getting a promotion at work, a New York financial employee and accomplished student-athlete who was visiting home for the holidays. , and a young man of 18 years. aspiring nurse from Mississippi for one year.
Witnesses described a horrible scene. “There were people everywhere,” Kimberly Strickland of Mobile, Alabama, said in an interview. “You just heard this screeching and the engine revving and this huge, loud impact and then people screaming and debris, just metal, the sound of metal and bodies crunching.”
Meanwhile, authorities in other American cities said they had beefed up security, including at Trump Tower and Times Square in New York City, adding that there were no immediate threats.
In Washington, police also said they had increased their presence as the capital prepares to host three major events this month: the Jan. 6 congressional certification of President-elect Trump’s election victory, the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter on January 9 and Trump’s funeral on January 20. opening.
Islamic State flag
The FBI said an ISIS flag was found on the trailer hitch of the rental vehicle involved in the New Orleans attack.
US President Joe Biden condemned what he called a “despicable” act.
Public records showed Jabbar worked in real estate in Houston. In a promotional video released four years ago, Jabbar described himself as born and raised in Beaumont, a city about 80 miles east of Houston.
Jabbar was in the regular Army from March 2007 to January 2015 and then in the Army Reserve from January 2015 to July 2020, an Army spokesman said. He was deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010 and held the rank of sergeant major at the end of the service.
ISIS is a militant group that once imposed a reign of terror on millions of people in Iraq and Syria until it collapsed following a sustained military campaign by a US-led coalition. Even as it has weakened on the ground, ISIS has continued to recruit sympathizers online, experts say.
