NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) — A US army veteran loyal to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group likely acted alone when he killed 14 and injured dozens in a truck attack on a crowd of New Year revelers in New Orleans, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said Thursday.
Despite initial concerns that Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, had accomplices still on the run, preliminary investigations show he likely acted alone, FBI deputy assistant director Christopher Raia said.
“We do not assess at this point that anyone else was involved,” Raia said.
However, new evidence emerged detailing the extent of the US citizen’s loyalty to IS and his plans to cause mayhem in the early morning attack in New Orleans’ French Quarter entertainment district, ending only after he was shot in a gunbattle with police.
More than 30 people were injured.
“He was 100 percent inspired by ISIS,” Raia said, using an alternative name for the international jihadist group.
Just before the attack, in which Jabbar slammed a rented Ford F-150 pickup into the crowd, he “posted several videos to an online platform proclaiming his support for ISIS,” Raia said.
A black ISIS flag was affixed to a pole on the back of his vehicle.
In one video, Jabbar “explains he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the ‘war between the believers and the disbelievers.’”
Raia said Jabbar had planted two homemade bombs in drinks coolers in French Quarter streets.
The bombs were viable — and according to President Joe Biden had remote detonators — but were made safe in time, Raia said.
Raia clarified that the total death toll of 15 from Wednesday’s carnage included 14 victims and Jabbar himself, who died after wounding two police officers in an exchange of gunfire.
Vegas incident likely separate
The New Orleans attack coincided with a high-profile incident in Las Vegas a few hours later where a Tesla Cybertruck blew up outside the Trump International Hotel.
In the bizarre incident, a US special forces soldier shot himself inside the Tesla, which then was engulfed in flames after a crude homemade bomb went off inside the car.
Law enforcement in Las Vegas said the decorated soldier, Matthew Alan Livelsberger, apparently committed suicide. However, the motive for the subsequent blast and the choice of the Trump-linked building remained unknown.
In an echo of the New Orleans incident, the vehicles in both cases had been rented through the car-sharing app Turo.