New Orleans attack ‘sign of growing ISIS threat on West’s doorstep’
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The January 1 vehicle attack in New Orleans that killed 15 people has been linked to the resurgent activities of ISIS across the globe. Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck with the terror group’s flag in the back into revellers out on a busy street in the early hours of the new year.
![[Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas identified by police as the suspect in a truck attack that killed several people during New Year's celebrations in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., is seen in this undated handout photograph obtained by Reuters on January 1, 2025. Texas Department of Public Safety/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_234736441-1d44.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=638)
The Texan, 42, then left the rented Ford and fired a weapon at law enforcement before they shot him dead at the scene. Counter-extremism expert Dr Hans-Jakob Schindler told Metro that upheaval and war in the Middle East has strengthened ISIS’s hand, along with major social media companies failing to eradicate terror propaganda.
![[New Orleans latest: Multiple fatalities after SUV ploughs into New Year's Eve partygoers in Bourbon Street]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_234688517-da8d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
One link between the Islamist extremists’ imagery and the atrocity in New Orleans’ French Quarter is the black and white flag displayed by Jabbar. Dr Schindler, a former terror analyst for the German government, said: ‘On the one hand, the New Orleans attack comes as no surprise; after two years of increased ISIS propaganda activity we have what I would describe as an ISIS-inspired attack in the US.
![[Emergency services attend the scene on Bourbon Street after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans' Canal and Bourbon Street, Wednesday Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_234690733-dc16.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
‘Where ISIS has directly guided an attack it usually claims responsibility in the immediate aftermath, which has not yet happened here, but this is definitely inspired by the terror group. ‘The ISIS poster in the back of the perpetrator’s truck mimics an ISIS poster from 2017 where they took responsibility for a range of vehicular attacks including in London, Berlin and the Middle East.
![[Shamsud-Din Jabbar,]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_234766607-53e3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
