The U.S. Army veteran also visited the city twice in the months before the truck attack, law enforcement officials said.
Authorities in the United States are investigating the potential significance of the overseas travels of the man responsible for driving a truck into New Orleans New Year’s Eve revelers, law enforcement officials said.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a US Army veteran who announced his support for ISIL (ISIS) in videos posted online before the attacks, visited Egypt and Canada in the summer of 2023, an FBI official said Sunday.
“Our agents are getting answers about where he went, who he met with, how those trips may or may not be connected to his actions in our city,” Lyonel Myrthil, special agent in charge of the bureau’s New Orleans field office, told reporters. .
Jabbar also made at least two trips to New Orleans, in October and November, officials said.
On his first visit, he was riding his bike around the city’s French Quarter, where the attack took place, while filming the scene with Meta smart glasses, according to police.
Myrthil said Jabbar was wearing glasses, but did not turn them on, when he carried out the New Year’s Eve attack, which killed 14 people and injured 35 others.
FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said all the evidence points to Jabbar, a US citizen, acting alone in carrying out the attacks, although investigators are looking into his contacts in and outside the US.
“We have not seen any indication of accomplices in the United States, but we are still looking for potential accomplices in the U.S. and beyond our borders,” Raia told reporters.
Jabbar drove a rental pickup truck around a barrier and sped down the famous Bourbon Street before he was shot by responding officers, according to authorities.
US President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit New Orleans on Monday with First Lady Jill Biden to pay tribute to the victims of the attack.
