A US Army veteran with an Islamic State flag and “hellbent” on carnage steered a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year revelers in New Orleans on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, officials said.
The FBI identified the attacker as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old US citizen from Texas. He appeared to have been a real estate agent working in Houston and had served as an IT specialist in the military.
Officials said they were searching for accomplices but gave few details.
Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick described Jabbar as a “terrorist,” and the FBI said “an ISIS flag was located in the vehicle,” using another name for the Islamic State jihadist group.
US President Joe Biden, describing the attack as “despicable,” said Jabbar had posted videos online hours before “indicating that he was inspired by ISIS.”
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Biden also said that law enforcement agencies were probing any possible links between the attack and the explosion later on Wednesday of a Tesla Cybertruck outside a hotel owned by US President-elect Donald Trump in Las Vegas that killed one person, though he cautioned that none had been found so far.
Officials said a manhunt was underway, with FBI agent Alethea Duncan warning that authorities “do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible.”
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said: “We’re hunting some bad people down.”
“We instantly counted, I’d say, 10 bodies — six clearly, graphically deceased, and the others yelling with no one around,” he said.
New Orleans is one of the most heavily visited destinations in the United States, and will host the Super Bowl next month.
The attack came just hours before the city was due to put on the Sugar Bowl, a major college football game. It was delayed until Thursday.
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