The U.S. Homeland Security Department and the FBI are warning federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to be vigilant for potential copycat incidents inspired by the New Year’s Eve truck-ramming attack in New Orleans that killed at least 14 people.
In a joint intelligence bulletin released Friday and obtained by VOA and other news organizations, federal authorities warned the nation’s 18,000 law-enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for “potential copycat or retaliatory attacks inspired by this attack and other recent, lethal vehicle-ramming incidents across the globe.”
The bulletin said such attacks “are likely to remain attractive for aspiring attackers given vehicles’ ease of acquisition and the low skill threshold necessary to conduct an attack.”
The federal bulletin noted that since 2014, the Islamic State terror group has been promoting the use of vehicles in terror attacks, followed by attacks with secondary weapons, as a method to cause mass casualty incidents.
The joint bulletin advised law enforcement agencies to look for danger signs, such as fraudulent documents or credit cards used to rent vehicles, or signs of “pre-operational surveillance,” such as automobiles parked in odd locations or suspicious activity near an event location.
The FBI released three photos Friday of the now deceased suspect in the attack, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, taken from surveillance video about an hour before the deadly Bourbon Street attack. They also released a photograph of a blue ice chest that was found near the scene containing an improvised explosive device.
The photos were released along with a statement soliciting information from any member of the public who might have passed Jabbar on the street or saw the cooler like the one in the photo.
The White House announced Friday that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to New Orleans on Monday to visit with families and community members affected by the attack, as well as meet with officials on the ground.
In a briefing Thursday with reporters, FBI officials said they believe Jabbar, who was killed at the scene in a shootout with police, acted alone in the New Year’s attack and was inspired by the Islamic State terror group.
FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia, with the agency’s counterterrorism division, said they concluded Jabbar had no accomplices following hundreds of interviews and reviews of the attacker’s calls, social media accounts and electronic devices.
Officials reopened Bourbon Street on Thursday afternoon. The attack occurred on Wednesday at 3:15 a.m.
On Tuesday evening, just hours before the attack, Jabbar posted five videos to his Facebook account, apparently addressed to his family and recorded while he was driving, in which he aligned himself with the Islamic State terror group. The FBI said an Islamic State flag also was found in the vehicle after the attack.
“This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act,” Raia said.
Jabbar had originally planned to hurt his relatives and friends but worried about how that would be interpreted by the media, Raia said. “He was 100% inspired by ISIS.”
The attack occurred at the intersection of Canal and Bourbon streets in the city’s lively French Quarter. The historic tourist destination filled with bars and music is also known for its large New Year’s Eve celebrations.
After the vehicle crashed, the driver got out of the truck and shot at responding officers, police said. Officers returned fire, killing the driver, according to police. Two officers were wounded but are in stable condition, the police said.
“This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told reporters at a news conference Wednesday.
Investigators found weapons and an explosive device in the vehicle, the FBI said, along with other explosive devices found in the French Quarter. The vehicle appeared to have been rented, the FBI said.
President-elect Donald Trump condemned the attack in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
“Our hearts are with all the innocent victims and their loved ones. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!” he said.
In the same post, Trump also falsely suggested that the suspect was an immigrant.
VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin and VOA reporter Liam Scott contributed to this report. Some information for this story came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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