Officials trying to determine if the New Orleans suspect had ties to terrorist groups
WASHINGTON — An Islamic State group flag, weapons and a “potential” improvised explosive found in the truck that plowed through crowds in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, killing at least 10 people, have raised the specter that the international terrorist group played a role in the attack.
President Joe Biden said Wednesday night that he was told by the FBI that before the attack, the driver posted videos on social media “mere hours” beforehand “indicating that he was inspired by ISIS — especially the desire to kill,” referring to an alternative name for the Islamic State group.
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Law enforcement officials said Wednesday that they were trying to determine the suspect’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State group. Counterterrorism specialists pointed to several telltale signs.
“By carrying an ISIS flag with him during the attack, the suspect wanted to show that he was a true believer, aligned with the ISIS cause, and perhaps hoping to trigger others into following suit,” said Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in New York.
Clarke said the attack was a fairly sophisticated assault, given the multiple layers involved: truck ramming, firearms and improvised explosive devices.
“This horrific attack is a painful reminder of how effective ISIS propaganda is at inspiring violent extremists, including many living in the West,” he said.
U.S. officials have been warning for months that the conflict in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, as well as unrest in Central Asia, could spill into the United States, most likely in the form of small radicalized groups acting on their own initiative or lone-wolf terrorists, inspired by the Islamic State group.
Authorities have voiced particular concern about the Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan called Islamic State Khorasan. The group carried out deadly bombings in Iran and Russia last year, and eight Tajik men were detained last year after crossing the southwestern U.S. border when authorities learned they might have ties to the Islamic State group.
“At a time when the terrorism threat was already elevated, the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans inside the United States to a whole ‘nother level,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a speech in April.
“We continue to be concerned about individuals or small groups drawing twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home,” Wray said.
If counterterrorism officials conclude that the Islamic State group inspired or directed the attack in New Orleans, it would be the deadliest ISIS-related assault in the United States since a 2016 shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killed 49 people and injured 53 others.
Since the last shards of the Islamic State group’s religious state, or caliphate, were destroyed in Syria in 2019, the group has been making a slow but steady comeback. It has built on the strength of affiliates in Afghanistan and Africa, as well as in areas of Syria that were formerly controlled by Russia and Bashar Assad’s government.
Just last month, the United States conducted one of its largest strikes in Syria against the Islamic State group in months, saying it hit “over 75 targets.”
Earlier in 2024, the Pentagon warned that the group’s attacks in Iraq and Syria were on track to double.
But the question on the mind of investigators Wednesday was to what extent, if at all, the suspect in New Orleans was influenced by the Islamic State group or some other terrorist organization.
In a 2010 article in its magazine, Inspire, al-Qaida encouraged adherents to use vehicles “to mow down the enemies of Allah.” But the tactic did not really catch on among would-be terrorists until several years later, when the Islamic State group began to call publicly for vehicle attacks.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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