The deadly Jan. 1, 2025, attack in New Orleans serves as a reminder of the persistent threat to the U.S. from individuals inspired by extremist Islamist groups.
While the investigation is still ongoing, some details about the suspect have been released. Authorities say Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran, was behind the assault in which a truck was driven into a dense crowd in New Orleans’ French Quarter a few hours after midnight, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. Jabbar, who died in a shoot-out with police, had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group in online videos posted on Dec. 31, according to the FBI.
It represents the first major assault on an American city by an individual purportedly influenced by the Islamic State group, or one of its affiliates, since a 2017 truck assault in New York City that killed eight.
The New Orleans attack, like that earlier incident, underscores an important point: While the Islamic State group’s territorial caliphate – the area in Syria and Iraq in which it assumed both political and religious authority and sought to enforce its interpretation of Islamic law – has been dismantled, the group’s ability to inspire acts of terror on U.S. soil through online propaganda and ideological influence remains alarmingly potent.
As a terrorism expert and a scholar specializing in radical Islamist militant groups, I believe the case of Jabbar – an American soldier who was radicalized in the U.S. – echoes similar lone wolf attacks in the West over the past decade.
With lost territory in the Middle East, the Islamic State group has sought to exploit personal grievances, mental health struggles and ideological vulnerabilities, transforming isolated individuals in the West into deadly instruments of violence.
The New Year’s Day attack took place in........