Terror attack in New Orleans: This is the man with the "desire to kill"
By Michael Mathes
New Orleans (Louisiana, USA) - Following the car attack in New Orleans that left at least 15 people dead, police are continuing to investigate the apparent Islamist attacker and possible accomplices.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the attack was carried out on New Year's Eve by 42-year-old ex-US soldier and Afghanistan veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar.
Investigators found a flag of the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS) in his rented pick-up truck. US President Joe Biden (82) referred to videos of the assassin shot by the police with IS connections.
According to FBI findings, the suspected attacker had published videos on online networks a few hours before the attack, which indicated that his subsequent act had been inspired by IS, Biden said in a short speech at his residence in Camp David near Washington. The videos also showed a "desire to kill".
At around 3.15 a.m. (local time) on New Year's Eve in the French Quarter, a popular nightlife district in New Orleans, the attacker drove at least 15 people to their deaths and injured many others.
According to the FBI, the attacker was then killed in a gun battle with the police. Two officers suffered injuries, their condition was stable.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar is said not to have acted alone
The authorities classified the crime as a terrorist attack . According to police chief Anne Kirkpatrick, the attacker's aim was to "run over as many people as possible" and cause a "bloodbath". An IS flag was found in his rental car. His links to such Islamist organizations are now being investigated, it was said.
The investigators stated that they assumed that Jabbar had not acted alone. The authorities did not provide any further details on their search for possible accomplices. The governor of the state of Louisiana, Jeff Landry (54), declared: "We're taking down some bad people."
According to the Pentagon, Jabbar had worked for the army from 2007 to 2015 in personnel management and as an IT specialist for the US Army and then served as a reservist until 2020. An army spokesman said Jabbar had served in Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010.
Jabbar had rented the white electric pick-up used for his death drive via the popular car rental app Turo. This app was also used to rent a Tesla Cybertruck, which also explodedon Wednesday in the US casino metropolis of Las Vegas in front of a hotel owned by future US President Donald Trump (78).