The Islamist behind the New Orleans truck attack that killed over a dozen people traveled to Canada and Egypt, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran, drove a truck into a crowd on New Year’s Day, resulting in the deaths of 14 individuals and injuries to numerous others, before he was killed in a shootout with police.
In videos posted to Facebook, Jabbar declared his allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group and indicated his original intent to broadcast the killing of his family, calling them “apostates.” Weapons, explosives, and an Islamic State flag were discovered in his vehicle.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil confirmed Jabbar’s visits to Cairo, Egypt, in late June and early July and then Ontario, Canada, shortly after. Canadian authorities, working in collaboration with U.S. agencies, verified Jabbar’s travel from Houston to Canada. The FBI has reported Jabbar’s use of “smart glasses” during his October visit to New Orleans, which were present during the attack.
Jabbar’s family noted his conversion to Islam as an adult. While some friends recently noticed a growing religious interest, there were supposedly few indications of extremism.
The mosque attended by Jabbar, the Islamic Center of Greater Houston (ICHG) – Masjid Bilal, has a history of extremism. Imam Eiad Saudan once stated in a sermon in 2023 that Jews take over the economies of countries and claimed that was the reason Adolf Hitler killed them during the Holocaust.
Another imam, Mohammed ElFarooqui, gave another antisemitic sermon last August, claiming that the Islamic god Allah turned Jews into monkeys, rats, and pigs for disobeying him and that Jews “went out everywhere on the face of this earth [and] started creating havoc everywhere.”
