The shocking New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans took a grimly familiar turn when it emerged that the FBI had discovered videos made by suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar in which he declared his support for the terrorist group Islamic State.
The FBI also found an Islamic State flag at the scene of the attack. Jabbar rammed his pickup truck into a crowd of people celebrating the new year in Bourbon Street killing at least 15 and injuring many more before firing a gun at police. Jabbar was shot dead.
Does the New Orleans attack show that the Islamic State terror threat is growing again? Newsweek put the question to experts. Here’s what they told us.
Bruce Hoffman, Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, Council on Foreign Relations; President, The Hoffman GroupCT
Yes. Since the Assad dictatorship was overthrown last month, the U.S. military has stepped up its air strikes on ISIS targets in that country because of an alarming increase in ISIS operations there.
In the U.S., FBI director Christopher Wray has repeatedly warned since the October 7, 2023 attacks of the danger of terrorist incidents in the U.S.—describing the situation as the most critical in his experience.
Moreover, in March 2023 the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt-Gen Scott Berrier and the commander of U.S. Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, warned that ISIS had already re-constituted its international terrorism capabilities.
This would also be the sixth significant international attack or attempt by ISIS in a year—in Iran, Turkey, Russia, Austria, and the plot in Oklahoma City on election day that was foiled by authorities a month previously.
FBI/ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
Martha Crenshaw, Senior Fellow, Emerita, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; Professor of Government, Emerita, Wesleyan University
The threat never went away but could be reactivated by events in the Middle East, particularly the overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria. It has likely…
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