Driver flying ISIS flag rams into New Orleans crowd, killing 15

A U.S. Army veteran flying an ISIS flag from his truck swerved around makeshift barriers and plowed into New Orleans’ crowded French Quarter on New Year’s Day, killing 15 people in an attack officials said may have been carried out with the help of others.

The suspect, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas who once served in Afghanistan, was killed in a shootout with police after ramming the crowd.

The attack injured about 30 other people, including two police officers wounded by gunfire from the suspect. It took place around 3:15 a.m. (0915 GMT) near the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Streets, an historic tourist destination known for its music and bars where crowds were celebrating the New Year.

Police and political leaders vowed to capture any accomplices.

Police found weapons and a potential explosive device in the vehicle, while two potential explosive devices were found in the French Quarter and rendered safe, the FBI said.

With the perceived danger ongoing, officials postponed the Sugar Bowl, a classic college football game played in New Orleans each year on New Year’s Day. The game between Notre Dame and Georgia was put off until Thursday afternoon as police swept parts of the city looking for possible explosive devices and converged on neighborhoods in search of clues.

The city will also host the NFL Super Bowl on Feb. 9.

An ISIS flag was attached to a staff protruding from the trailer hitch of the rented vehicle, prompting an investigation into possible links to terrorist organizations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.

HISTORY OF ISIS

At the height of its power from 2014-2017, the IS “caliphate” held sway over a wide area of Syria and Iraq, imposing death and torture on opponents of its radical brand of Islam. Its fighters repeatedly defeated both countries’ armies and carried out or inspired attacks in dozens of cities around the world.

Its then leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, killed in 2019 by U.S. special forces in northwestern Syria, rose from obscurity to lead the ultra-hardline group and declare himself “caliph” of all Muslims.

The caliphate collapsed in Iraq, where it once had a base only a 30-minute drive from Baghdad, and in Syria, after a sustained military campaign by a U.S.-led coalition.

The new leader, known by a pseudonym Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, remains shrouded in secrecy.

‘SCREAMING AND DEBRIS’

Mike and Kimberly Strickland of Mobile, Alabama, said they were in New Orleans for a bluegrass concert and heading back to their hotel just 20 yards (meters) from where the truck hit some pedestrians.

“There were people everywhere,” Kimberly Strickland said in an interview. “You just heard this squeal and the rev of the engine and this huge loud impact and then the people screaming and debris – just metal – the sound of crunching metal and bodies.”

About 400 officers were on duty in the French Quarter at the time of the incident, including a number who had established a makeshift barrier to prevent anyone from driving into the pedestrian zone, police said.

In response to vehicle attacks on pedestrian malls around the world, New Orleans was in the process of removing and replacing the steel barriers known as bollards that restrict vehicle traffic in the Bourbon Street area.

Construction was due to be completed in time for the Super Bowl. As a temporary measure, police vehicles and officers attempted to provide a barrier, Kirkpatrick said.

“We did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it,” Kirkpatrick said.