Erin Banco, Jonathan Landay and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies are concerned about a copycat attack on a vehicle following the New Year’s Eve attack in New Orleans by a U.S. military veteran, according to a U.S. law enforcement intelligence bulletin released on Friday.
The bulletin was released a day after the FBI said Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas native, was “100 percent inspired” by the Islamic State militant group to drive a truck into New Year’s Eve revelers in New Orleans, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens of others.
Jabbar, who was carrying an Islamic State flag from the back of a truck he had hired, was later killed in a shootout with police.
The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the US National Counterterrorism Center are “concerned about possible copycat or revenge attacks,” according to an intelligence bulletin released by the three agencies and reviewed by Reuters.
Such attacks are “likely to remain attractive to aspiring attackers given the ease of obtaining vehicles and the low skill threshold required to carry out an attack,” according to a bulletin issued to US law enforcement agencies.
The bulletin said that as of Thursday, the Islamic State had not claimed responsibility for the attack in New Orleans. But the group’s online supporters celebrated it and the Dec. 20 vehicle rampage in Germany even though the incident did not appear to be inspired by Islamic State, it said.
Other online users cited the attacks as “general calls for violence against specific groups, such as immigrants or Muslims,” the newsletter continued.
Islamic State has continued to promote its propaganda and recruit supporters online despite suffering heavy losses from a US-led military coalition that has recaptured the “caliphate” the militants captured in Syria and Iraq in 2014.
The bulletin urged law enforcement personnel and private security companies to be aware that in many previous cases, attackers who drove vehicles into crowds were armed and continued their attacks with handguns or sharp weapons.
CALLS FOR ATTACKS
The Jan. 1 incident in New Orleans’ crowded French Quarter was the seventh attack in the United States since 2001 inspired by a foreign extremist organization, the bulletin said.
The use of “sharp weapons” and firearms is more common in such attacks, but vehicles could pose an increasing threat, it said.
Foreign terrorist organizations designated by the U.S. and “supportive media groups” have released videos, posters and chants calling for attacks “during the winter holidays in general and New Year’s celebrations in particular,” the bulletin said.
On December 30, a “pro-ISIS media unit” fueled attacks on New Year’s celebrations in the US and coalition countries “by releasing videos highlighting past ISIS attacks and instructing supporters to incite further violence,” it said.
President Joe Biden’s administration is briefing President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team on investigations into the New Orleans attack and the same-day explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, a source familiar with the discussions said.
The lack of security clearances among members of the transition team was not an issue, the source said, noting that much of what is known has been made public.
Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, and Mike Waltz, his future national security adviser, already have clearances for members of Congress who have served on key intelligence committees.
Trump’s new chief of staff, Susie Wiles, also has clearance and may be briefed, according to a source familiar with the matter.
