Truck Attack Shows Revived Terrorism Risk

Authorities have warned of potential assaults by affiliates of Islamic State

- ALAN CULLISON

The vehicle-ramming attack by a U.S. Army veteran that killed at least 14 and injured more than 30 holiday revelers in New Orleans on Wednesday highlights the threat of a resurgent Islamic State that has a history of inspiring disaffected individuals to commit mass murder.

That could force a review of U.S. priorities that have lately focused on Russia and China as national security threats while giving a back seat to lone-wolf jihadist terrorist plots, analysts said.

The suspect in the New Orleans attack, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, appears to fit the profile of previous attackers who suffered personal or family problems before committing violence seemingly connected to Islamic State propaganda.

Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen from Texas who deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 as an enlisted soldier, had recently endured a contentious divorce and financial troubles. Police said he flew an Islamic State flag on a pickup truck that he drove into a crowd in New Orleans's French Quarter. Police shot Jabbar dead when he emerged from his pickup with an assault rifle.

President Biden said the attack appeared to have been "inspired by" Islamic State, and federal authorities said they were seeking possible accomplices who might have helped him plant explosive devices. Police defused the devices, which were hidden in blue coolers and wired to be detonated remotely, officials familiar with the investigation said.