An ISIS flag allegedly found within the truck that Shamsud-Din Jabbar used within the deadly car-ramming assault on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year’s Day highlights the persistent hazard posed by the terrorist group, which continues to churn out on-line propaganda to attempt to foment violence around the globe, specialists and U.S. officers say.
The Islamic State’s actual function within the assault stays unclear. But the invention of the flag, in addition to two possible improvised explosive devices within the space, prompted federal authorities to research the suspect’s attainable hyperlinks with ISIS, legislation enforcement officers stated. President Joe Biden said Wednesday night that the FBI informed him Jabbar had revealed movies “indicating that he was impressed by ISIS.”
The assault in New Orleans, which killed a minimum of 15 individuals, follows repeated warnings from U.S. legislation enforcement and intelligence officials about an elevated terrorist threat over the previous yr fueled by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel and Israel’s response.
Authorities have cited ISIS’ department in Afghanistan, often called ISIS-Ok, as a specific hazard.
The arrest in October of an Afghan accused of plotting an Election Day attack in Oklahoma City, in addition to current plots in France, Sweden and elsewhere, spotlight the rising risk posed by ISIS-K, officers and counterterrorism specialists say.
“The New Orleans terrorist assault merely confirms what many within the counterterrorism group have been saying for the previous yr, which is that ISIS stays a cussed and chronic risk and one which merely isn’t going to fade away,” stated Colin Clarke of the Soufan Group, a consultancy that focuses on world safety points.
“While we don’t know the extent of ISIS involvement but, this was both impressed by the group or directed from overseas,” Clarke stated.
Aaron Zelin, an professional on jihadist teams on the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a suppose tank, stated using a automotive to focus on pedestrians is a typical “low-tech” tactic ISIS extremists have utilized in earlier assaults within the West over the previous a number of years, together with stabbing assaults.
Car ramming doesn’t require entry to explosives, particular weapons or a classy plan, Zelin famous.
If the New Orleans case is confirmed as an ISIS-backed or -inspired assault, it will be the primary deadly assault by somebody linked to or performing within the identify of the group on U.S. soil since 2017, when an ISIS supporter drove a truck alongside a motorcycle path in New York City, killing eight people.
In November 2016, authorities stated, ISIS propaganda impressed a Somali refugee to drive a automotive right into a crowd at Ohio State University after which stab college students attempting to assist these hit by his automotive. Police shot and killed the attacker. From 2014 to fall 2018, there have been 16 vehicular assaults within the United States and Europe “carried out by jihadists,” together with however not restricted to individuals impressed by or linked with ISIS, according to a report by the think tank New America.
ISIS, a worldwide Sunni Islamist group that after managed an unlimited stretch of territory in Iraq and Syria, is weaker than it was at its peak 10 years in the past. Western intelligence companies have typically managed to counter the risk posed by the group, Zelin informed NBC News. “Overall, many of the assault plots have been damaged up” within the West, he stated.
“But it solely takes one event for one thing to occur, and sadly, that then leads individuals to view the risk in another way,” he stated.
In early August, the CIA and different U.S. intelligence companies helped Austria defeat an ISIS plot to kill tons of of individuals at Taylor Swift concert events in Vienna, Deputy CIA Director David Cohen stated on the time. The reveals have been known as off.
Robust use of on-line propaganda
Over the previous decade, ISIS’ on-line propaganda has offered steerage to its followers about tips on how to conduct assaults by stabbing individuals or ramming automobiles into crowds, Zelin stated.
“None of that is new. They simply proceed to throw it out each single day. And from their perspective, the hope is that it sticks with any person,” he stated.
With branches in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, ISIS has invested closely in propaganda throughout a number of languages, usually aiming its message at Muslims overseas, specialists say.
The group has recommended endurance in its efforts to focus on the United States and different Western nations because it misplaced its self-declared “caliphate” territory in Iraq and Syria in 2019, stated Lucas Webber, a senior risk intelligence analyst at Tech Against Terrorism, a nongovernmental group that goals to disrupt extremists’ use of the web.
Still, Webber stated, it “has remained extremely lively on-line, and a sturdy official and supporting community of propaganda retailers have flourished throughout platforms.”
ISIS additionally has “ramped up” its operations in current months to hold out or information assaults on its perceived enemies, Webber stated.
The collapse of the Assad regime in Syria final month may open a possible strategic alternative for ISIS because it seeks to use a political and safety vacuum, specialists stated.
“With ISIS gaining floor in Syria, there’s a excessive probability that the group will ramp up its propaganda in an effort to encourage followers, fanboys and extremists across the globe,” stated Clarke of the Soufan Group. “ISIS is seeking to seize the momentum heading into 2025 and can doubtless enhance its operational tempo, together with a deal with assaults within the West.”
At its peak in 2015, ISIS managed an unlimited swath of territory in Syria and Iraq, which it used to stage assaults within the area and overseas.
A U.S.-led army marketing campaign, which relied on American air energy, Kurdish floor forces and Iraqi authorities troops, inflicted main losses on ISIS and ultimately rolled again the group.
In its annual evaluation of world threats final yr, the U.S. intelligence group stated, “ISIS will stay a centralized world group even because it has been pressured to depend on regional branches.”
It added that the group will attempt “to conduct and encourage world assaults in opposition to the West and Western pursuits.”
