FILE - A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground rolled up behind a pickup truck that a man drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing and injuring a number of people, early Wednesday morning, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE -The FBI investigates the area on Orleans St and Bourbon Street by St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter where a suspicious package was detonated after a person drove a truck into a crowd earlier on Bourbon Street on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)
FILE - A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground rolled up behind a pickup truck that a man drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing and injuring a number of people, early Wednesday morning, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
By Qassim Abdul-zahra And Jeff Martin The Associated Press
An official with the Islamic State group has been detained in Iraq, suspected of being involved with inciting the pickup truck-ramming attack in New Orleans that killed more than a dozen people celebrating the start of 2025, Iraqi authorities said.
Iraqi authorities had received requests from the U.S. to help in the investigation of the attack in the predawn hours of New Years Day in the famed French Quarter of New Orleans, Iraqi judicial officials said.
A driving a pickup truck that bore the flag of the Islamic State group sped down Bourbon Street, running over some victims and ramming others, authorities said at the time. The Federal Bureau of Investigation identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas, and said it was working to determine any potential associations with terrorist organizations.
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After driving his pickup truck onto a sidewalk around a police car blocking an entrance to Bourbon Street and striking the New Year鈥檚 revelers, he crashed into construction equipment, authorities said. He then opened fire on police officers and Bourbon Street crowds, and was shot and killed by the officers, authorities said. Investigators found guns and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device in the vehicle, along with other devices elsewhere in the French Quarter.
Iraqi officials said that Baghdad鈥檚 Al-Karkh Investigative Court specified the suspect who was later detained and turned out to be a member of the Islamic State group鈥檚 foreign operations office.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, did not release the name of the suspect, only saying that he is an Iraqi citizen. The officials said the man will be put on trial in accordance with the country鈥檚 anti-terrorism law, adding that Iraq is committed to international cooperation in fighting terrorism.
鈥淭he FBI鈥檚 investigation into the New Year鈥檚 Day terrorist attack in New Orleans remains active and ongoing,” the FBI said in a statement Tuesday.
鈥淲hile we continue to work with our law enforcement partners, both in the U.S. and internationally, based on the information to date, we continue to believe that Shamsud Din-Jabbar acted alone in carrying out the attack on Bourbon Street,鈥 the agency said, saying that anyone with information is encouraged to contact them.
Despite its defeat in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, Islamic State still has sleeper cells that carry out deadly attack in both countries as well as other parts of the world.
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The group once attracted tens of thousands of fighters and supporters from around the world to come to Syria and Iraq, and at its peak ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom and was notorious for its brutality. It beheaded civilians, slaughtered 1,700 captured Iraqi soldiers in a short period, and enslaved and raped thousands of women from the Yazidi community, one of Iraq鈥檚 oldest religious minorities.
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Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad. Martin reported from Atlanta.
