New Orleans attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone, even though there are indications that he had strong support for ISIS, US President Joe Biden has said.
At least 14 people were killed and 35 others were injured after Jabbar drove his pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street early Wednesday.
The FBI is terming the crime as an act of terrorism. Among the dead included Jabbar, 42 a former veteran who too died in exchange of fire from the local police. A native of Houston he drove to New Orleans.
"Today, the FBI briefed me that, as of now, we have no information that anyone else is involved in the attack. They've established that the attacker was the same person who planted the explosives in those ice coolers in two nearby locations in the French Quarter just a few hours before he rammed into the crowd with his vehicle," Biden told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
In response to a question, Biden said he is trying to travel to New Orleans. "They assess he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those two ice chests," he said.
"The attacker posted several videos just several hours before the attack indicating his strong support for ISIS. Federal law enforcement and the intelligence community are actively investigating any foreign or domestic contacts or connections that could possibly be relevant to the attack," said the president.
Biden met with his national security team shortly after he returned from Camp David on Thursday afternoon. He said reporters that they are also continuing to investigate whether or not there's any connection between the New Orleans attack and the explosion in Las Vegas.
"As of now… they've just been briefed, they have not found any evidence of such a connection thus far.". I've encouraged them to keep searching. The man who leased the truck which exploded in Las Vegas was active duty US Army, and FBI is working through the Department of Defense to make investigations, which include the motivations of the serviceman and everything he served with him with anything he'd say and do. I instructed my team to speed up these investigations so we have answers to our unanswered questions," he said.
Been making every single resource available to get the job done, and we're going to share the facts as soon as I learn them so the American public doesn't have to wonder. In the meantime, like I said last night, New Orleans is a city of tremendous spirit. You can't keep it down. You really can't, and we're seeing that today," Biden said.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in an interview with Fox News the suspect in the New Orleans terror attack is part of a "phenomenon of homegrown violent extremists that we have seen develop and emerge over the past ten years".
As stated by ABC News, Jabbar served in the Army from 2007 through 2015 in human resources and information technology. He spent part of his service time between February 2009 and January 2010 deployed to Afghanistan.
He further served as an IT specialist for the Army Reserve from 2015 to 2020. The jobs that were listed are not direct combat positions, according to the news channel.
Read also| US Under Siege: Mass Shooting at NY Nightclub Injures 11 in 24 Hours
Read also| Bangladesh Court Denies Bail to ISKCON Priest Chinmoy Krishna Das
