US president Joe Biden has confirmed that a terrorist who killed 15 people during the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans was ‘inspired by Isis’. Biden said that Shamsud-Din Jabbar – who also injured at least 35 people after driving his pick-up truck through crowds of revellers – had expressed a ‘desire to kill’ in videos posted online. An Isis flag was found in Jabbar’s Ford F-150 Lightning vehicle, Biden confirmed.
‘The situation is very fluid,’ the president said. ‘The law enforcement [and the] intelligence community continue to look for any connections, associations or co-conspirators…the investigation is continuing to be active, and no one should jump to conclusions.’
The FBI said it does not think Jabbar, a 42-year-old ex-soldier, acted alone. ‘We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,’ Alethea Duncan, an FBI special agent, told reporters in New Orleans.
Donald Trump took to Truth Social a few hours after the attack to say that the authorities – including the FBI and the Department of Justice – ‘have not done their job’ in protecting Americans.
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