New Orleans terrorist linked to ISIS, two Israelis among the wounded

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, said in a video he’d joined ISIS prior to killing at least 15 and injuring 30 in his ramming and shooting attack before being killed by police.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The man who killed at least 15 people and injured 30 when ramming a pickup truck through New Year’s eve revelers in New Orleans and shooting them early Wednesday morning had declared prior to the attack that he had joined the ISIS terror organization.

In a video Shamsud-Din Jabbar uploaded to Facebook, he pledged allegiance to the extremist Muslim terror organization.

When President Joe Biden mourned the dead c he said that the FBI had reported to him that “mere hours before the attack,” Jabbar had posted videos “indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, especially a desire to kill.”

His brother, Abdur, told the New York Times (NYT) that Shamsud had converted to Islam when young and had been “a sweetheart really, a nice guy, a friend, really smart, caring.” His heinous actions came from “some type of radicalization, not religion,” he added.

Jabbar also posted that he was planning to kill his family. He had been twice divorced and had two daughters, aged 15 and 20. He also allegedly discussed his debts and failing business.

The 42-year-old Texas native had rented an Airbnb about a mile away from Bourbon Street, the site he picked for his attack, as well as the Ford pickup truck he used in the rampage.

The black ISIS flag was flying from the back of his truck as he went around a flimsy police barricade cordoning off the street festivities and drove it through a crowd.
After the police shot and killed him, they found a blue cooler rigged with explosives and nails in the truck, and bomb-making materials in the Airbnb.

The FBI is also looking for other suspects as they do not think Jabbar “was solely responsible,” the agency said in a Wednesday afternoon press conference. Their agents are “conducting a number of court-authorized search warrants in New Orleans and other states.”

A man was seen surrendering to law enforcement officials outside Jabbar’s run-down Houston home that same afternoon, although it is as yet unclear if he was linked to the terror attack.

Jabbar had served in the U.S. armed forces as an IT specialist for almost eight years, according to his service record. During his active duty, he was posted to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010. After five years in the reserves, he left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.

He had received several ribbons and service medals during his time in the army.

Two Israelis were injured in the attack, one of them seriously, according to the Israeli foreign ministry.

Both the ministry and the Consulate General in Houston are in contact with the hospitals and the families of the injured.