New Orleans Truck Attacker Remotely Operated Explosives Inside Coolers At 2 Locations: Biden

New York: A few hours before ramming a truck into a crowd of New Year’s Day revellers, the New Orleans attacker had planted remotely operated explosives inside coolers at two nearby locations in the French Quarter, the outgoing US President Joe Biden said. The ISIS-inspired attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, had a ‘remote detonator’ in his truck to carry out explosions, claimed Biden.

Biden mentioned this while citing reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). “They have established that the attacker was the same person who planted the explosives in those ice coolers in two nearby locations in the French Quarter, just a few hours before he rammed into the crowd with his vehicle. They assessed he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those two ice chests,” he said.

A Texas-born army veteran, Shamsud-Din Jabbar (42) drove a rented truck into crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Later, he opened fire. At least 15 people died, and over 30 were injured in the incident. Jabbar was also gunned down.

His vehicle had an ISIS flag. In his previous videos on social media, Jabbar had mentioned his desire to join the terror group. This has led the FBI to investigate terror angle in the incident .

“The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill — a desire to kill. The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack,” Biden added.

The FBI has also released CCTV visuals of Jabbar placing improvised explosive devices (IED) in the city.

“FBI special agent bomb technicians recovered two IEDs in coolers: one from the cross-section of Bourbon and Orleans Street and the second at the intersection of Bourbon and Toulouse Streets. Both devices were rendered safe. We did obtain surveillance footage showing Jabbar placing both devices where they were found. Two other items of interest were determined not to be IEDs,” the federal investigation agency stated, as quoted by India Today.

Senior FBI officer Christopher Raia said videos made by Jabbar just before the attack showed he supported Islamic State. The attacker also claimed to have joined ISIS before last summer.

The investigating agencies have urged people to share any hints or leads to gather more information about Jabbar, who is believed to have acted alone. Jabbar’s half-brother reportedly claimed that the attacker had abandoned Islam in his 20s or 30s, adding that his faith in the religion renewed.