New Orleans attacker hid bombs in ice coolers, had detonator in truck: Biden

The New Orleans attacker had planted remotely operated explosives inside coolers at two nearby locations in the French Quarter just a few hours before driving a pickup truck at high speed into a crowd of people celebrating New Year’s Day, US President Joe Biden said. The ISIS-inspired attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, had a “remote detonator” in his truck to carry out the blast.

Citing reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Biden said, “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”.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran from Texas who had served in Afghanistan, drove a pickup truck into crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans and then opened fire. At least 15 people were killed, and over 30 were injured. His vehicle displayed an ISIS flag, and his previous videos mentioned his desire to join the terror group, prompting the FBI to investigate the incident as an act of terrorism.

The FBI released CCTV visuals of the attacker 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 said.