Keystone-SDA
A former American soldier, carrying an Islamic State group flag, rushed his car into a crowd celebrating the New Year on Wednesday in the tourist district of New Orleans, in the south of the United States. It left at least fifteen dead.
This content was published on
January 2, 2025 – 00:53
(Keystone-ATS) The 42-year-old man, who died, was “determined” to cause “carnage”, according to the local police, while the FBI considers this attack, Wednesday at dawn, as a probable “terrorist act”.
Investigators are working “to determine the individual’s possible associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations” and claim to be looking for accomplices, without giving details. US media reported that detectives had reviewed video appearing to show three men and a woman planting explosive devices before the attack.
This comes less than three weeks before the transfer of power between Democratic President Joe Biden and his elected Republican successor Donald Trump, in an electric political climate.
“U.S. national from Texas”
The alleged perpetrator of this vehicle-ramming attack was Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an “American national from Texas” and former army soldier, federal police revealed. He was in the army from 2007 to 2015, including a deployment to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, finishing as a staff sergeant, according to the Department of Defense.
The FBI indicated that “an (jihadist group) IS flag was in his vehicle” and that two homemade explosive devices found in the car and in the neighborhood had been defused.
Shot down
After knocking down, killing and injuring dozens of bystanders, the man was shot dead in a shootout with police. Two police officers were injured.
Around 3:15 a.m., at the wheel of a Ford pick-up, he drove into the crowd wandering in the “Vieux Carré”, the French quarter of this Louisiana town, trying to “crush as many people as he could.” could,” announced Wednesday morning a local police chief, Anne Kirkpatrick. “He was fiercely determined to cause carnage,” she insisted. An FBI official on site, Alethea Duncan, told the press “not to think that Jabbar was solely responsible” and that he would have acted with “potential accomplices”.
An AFP journalist saw his damaged vehicle which had been transformed into a weapon: a Ford F-150 pick-up, very common in the United States, in an electric version.
Trump denounces immigration
In the twilight of his term, which ends on January 20, President Biden condemned the attack. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on the people of our country,” he said in a White House statement.
Donald Trump, his predecessor and soon-to-be successor, who campaigned on denouncing illegal immigration, made the link with the millions of illegal immigrants in the United States: he repeated, without proof, on his Truth Social network that “ the criminals who are coming (to the United States) are much worse than the criminals we have in our country.”
“War zone”
Renowned for its restaurants, bars and jazz clubs, this district, which looks like a small French colonial town, also hosts cabarets and places where LGBT+ people meet.
One witness, Zion Parsons, cited by CNN, spoke of a “war zone”, while another, Jimmy Cothran on ABC News, saw “madness” from his balcony.
Jim Mowrer told CBS News earlier that the vehicle drove into the crowd at “high speed” before its driver got out and opened fire, provoking a response from the police.
“When the gunshots stopped, we (…) went out into the street and we saw many people hit; we wanted to see what we could do to help them,” but some had “unfortunately died,” he said.
Jeff Landry, the governor of Louisiana, denounced “an act of atrocious violence”.
EU: “no excuse”
“There is no excuse for such violence,” said the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas. “We express our total solidarity with the victims and their families during this tragic time,” she said on X.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “horrified”, assuring that his country “stands alongside the American people”.
Popular tourist destination
New Orleans is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States.
The attack occurred ten days after that against a Christmas market in Germany, in Magdeburg, when a Saudi psychiatrist installed since 2006 and described as “Islamophobic” and suffering from mental disorders, mowed down the crowd aboard a BMW.
Five people died and more than 200 injured.
