By Hana Levi Julian – JewishPress.com
At least 15 people were murdered and some 30 others wounded, including two Israeli citizens, early Wednesday morning in a terrorist attack in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The attacker was identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a resident of Texas who served approximately 10 years in the US Army.
Jabbar drove his Ford pickup truck into a crowd of people celebrating the secular new year at around 3:15 AM local time on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. He then exited his vehicle with an assault rifle and opened fire in the iconic area in the city’s historic French Quarter, authorities said. The wounded, including two local police officers, were taken to five area hospitals.
Jabbar was shot and killed by law enforcement at the scene. A subsequent search of his vehicle uncovered the flag of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization, along with weapons and a “potential IED,” the FBI said. “Other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter. The FBI’s special agent bomb technicians are working with our law enforcement partners to determine if any of these devices are viable, and they will work to render those devices safe,” the agency said in its statement.
“We are aggressively running down all leads to identify any possible associates of the subject,” the FBI added. “We do not believe he was solely responsible.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in a statement on the X social media platform that he was “deeply saddened” by the attack.
“My heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the victims. Wishing a swift recovery to the two injured Israeli citizens and all the wounded. I instructed Israel’s Consul General in Houston to immediately deploy a representative to the scene. Terror has no place in our world. Israel stands in solidarity with New Orleans and the United States,” Sa’ar added.
The Foreign Affairs and the Israeli Consulate General in Houston are “in contact with the hospitals and the families of the injured,” according to a ministry spokesperson.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell called the mass casualty incident a “terrorist attack” and said she has been in direct contact with the White House.
“A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning,” Lousiana Govorner Jeff Landry said in a separate statement.
The attacker “was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told journalists at a briefing following the attack. “This man, this perpetrator, he fired on our officers from his vehicle when he crashed his vehicle. Two of our officers have been shot. They are stable,” she added.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the Justice Department’s National Security Division and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana are working with local law enforcement and “will deploy every available resource to conduct this investigation.”
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