The New Orleans attacker had planted remotely operated explosives inside coolers at two nearby locations in the French Quarter just a few hours before driving a truck at high speed into a crowd celebrating New Year’s Day, US President Joe Biden said.The ISIS-inspired attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, had a “remote detonator” in his truck to carry out the blast.
Citing reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Biden said, “They have 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. They assessed he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those two ice chests”.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran from Texas who had served in Afghanistan, drove a rented truck into crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans and then opened fire. At least 15 people were killed, and over 30 were injured in the incident and the attacker was also gunned down.
His vehicle displayed an ISIS flag, and his previous videos mentioned his desire to join the terror group, prompting the FBI to investigate the incident as an act of terrorism.
“The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill — a desire to kill. The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack,” Biden added.
The FBI released CCTV visuals of the attacker placing improvised explosive devices (IED) in the city.
“FBI special agent bomb technicians recovered two IEDs in coolers: one from the cross-section of Bourbon and Orleans Street and the second at the intersection of Bourbon and Toulouse Streets. Both devices were rendered safe. We did obtain surveillance footage showing Jabbar placing both devices where they were found. Two other items of interest were determined not to be IEDs,” the federal investigation agency said.
“The IED was inside a cooler, and many people stopped and looked at the cooler and then continued on their way,” the FBI added.