According to law enforcement officials, a U.S. Army veteran also visited the city twice in the months before the truck attack.
Authorities in the United States are investigating the potential significance of foreign travel by the man who drove a truck to New Year’s celebrations in New Orleans, law enforcement officials said.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran who proclaimed his support for ISIL (ISIS) in videos posted online before the attack, visited Egypt and Canada in the summer of 2023, an FBI official said on Sunday.
“Our agents are getting answers about where he went, who he met, and how those trips are related or not related to his actions in our city,” Lyonel Myrthil, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said reporters.
Officials said Jabbar also made at least two trips to New Orleans in October and November.
According to police, during his first visit, he rode his bicycle through the city’s French Quarter, where the attack occurred, and recorded the scene with meta-smart glasses.
Myrthil said Jabbar was wearing the glasses but did not turn them on when he carried out the New Year’s Day attack that killed 14 people and injured 35 others.
Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI, said all evidence points to Jabbar, a U.S. citizen, carrying out the attack alone, although investigators were examining his contacts inside and outside the United States.
“We have seen no evidence of an accomplice in the United States, but we are still looking for potential partners in the United States and outside our borders,” Raia told reporters.
According to authorities, Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck around a barrier and sped down famous Bourbon Street before he was shot by responding police officers.
US President Joe Biden will visit New Orleans on Monday with First Lady Jill Biden to pay his respects to the victims of the attack.
