Investigations are continuing into the terror attack that killed 14 people in New Orleans on New Year's Day.
The FBI is examining the travel history of the suspect, 42-year-old US citizen and army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar's from Texas, who travelled alone to Egypt for a month in 2023.
The Bureau has said the attack was ‘premeditated’ and ‘100% inspired by ISIS’.
Federal authorities revealed on Friday that Jabbar had reserved the vehicle used in the deadly attack more than six weeks earlier.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation released photos of surveillance footage that shows Shamsud-Din Jabbar an hour before he drove a truck down Bourbon Street, New Orleans, early Jan. 1, 2025. (Federal Bureau of Investigation via AP). 2 January 2025FBI also said that before his attack, Jabbar set fire to a house he had rented in an effort to destroy evidence.
He had placed accelerants throughout the house in his effort to destroy it, but the fire, which was started in the hallway, had extinguished itself before spreading to other rooms.
Bomb-making materials were found both at the rented accommodation in New Orleans and Jabbar's home in Houston, Texas.
A homemade device suspected of being a rifle silencer was also found in the New Orleans home.
Explosive devices
Meanwhile, federal investigators say Jabbar used a very rare explosive compound in the two functional improvised explosive devices (IEDs) placed by him before the attack.
The explosive has never been used in any US or European terror attack, officials said.
Federal authorities are now investigating how Jabbar knew how to make this homemade explosive, and why the IEDs did not go off.
Meanwhile, local authorities are facing questions about a lack of bollards on Bourbon Street, where the attack happened.
Reporting by IRN.
Featured image: Emergency services attend the scene after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans' Canal and Bourbon Street, Wednesday Jan. 1, 2025.
