US army veteran kills 15 in New Year’s Eve ‘terror attack’

A US army veteran driving a pick-up truck that bore the flag of the Islamic State group has killed at least 15 people as he steered around a police blockade and slammed into New Year’s Eve revellers in New Orleans before being shot dead by police.

The FBI said it is investigating the attack early on Wednesday in the city’s French Quarter as a terrorist act and does not believe the driver acted alone.

Investigators found multiple improvised explosive devices, including two pipe bombs that were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by the Associated Press.

The bulletin, relying on information gathered soon after the attack, also said surveillance footage showed three men and a woman placing one of the devices.

The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into mayhem, injuring more than 30 people.

Pedestrians fled to safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. One man watched in horror as authorities placed a tarpaulin over his friend’s body after she was hit and thrown nine metres.

“This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.

The driver “defeated” safety measures in place to protect pedestrians, she said, and was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did”.

The FBI identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a US citizen and Army veteran from Texas, and said it is working to determine Jabbar’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organisations.

“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said at a news conference.

Jabbar drove a rented pick-up truck on to a pavement, going around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said.

A barrier system meant to prevent vehicle attacks was undergoing repairs in preparation for the Super Bowl, which is scheduled to take place there in February.

Police killed Jabbar after he exited the truck and opened fire on responding officers, Ms Kirkpatrick said. Three officers returned fire. Two officers were shot and are in stable condition. At least 33 other people were hurt in the attack.

President Joe Biden said Jabbar had posted video on social media indicating he was inspired by the Islamic State group.

Mr Biden said the man had expressed a “desire to kill”.

He said the investigation remained fluid.

The president said: “I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you.”

A photo circulated among law enforcement officials showed a bearded Jabbar wearing camouflage next to the truck after he was killed.

The intelligence bulletin obtained by the AP said he was wearing a ballistic vest and helmet. The flag of the so-called Islamic State group was on the truck’s trailer hitch, the FBI said.

Investigators recovered a handgun and AR-style rifle.

Zion Parsons, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi, said he saw the truck “barrelling through, throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air”.

Mr Parsons said he heard gunshots and ran through a gruesome aftermath of bleeding and maimed victims.

“Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering,” Mr Parsons told the AP. “People crying on the floor, like brain matter all over the ground.”

His friend, 18-year-old aspiring nurse Nikyra Dedeaux, was among the people killed.

Mr Parsons said he called hospitals and the morgue, searching for answers about the location of Ms Dedeaux’s body. He later called her family to deliver the grim news.

“I hadn’t had time to cry up until I called her mother and she asked me, ‘Where’s my baby,’” Mr Parsons said. “That broke me.”

Hours after the attack, several coroner’s office vans were parked on the corner of Bourbon and Canal streets, cordoned off by police tape with crowds of dazed tourists standing around, some trying to navigate their luggage through the labyrinth of blockades.

“We looked out our front door and saw caution tape and dead silence and it’s eerie,” said Tessa Cundiff, an Indiana native who moved to the French Quarter a few years ago. “This is not what we fell in love with, it’s sad.”

President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Delaware, said he felt “anger and frustration” over the attack but that he would refrain from further comment until more is known.

“My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday,” Mr Biden said in a statement. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”