A suspected ISIS operative has been charged in connection with the devastating New Year’s Day truck and gun attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans — an act of terrorism that killed 15 people and injured 30 more, and is once again raising alarms over the ongoing threat of radical Islamic extremism in the United States.
On January 1, 2025, the attacker — identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar — allegedly drove a rented Ford F-150 Lightning into a densely packed New Year’s celebration on Bourbon Street. After plowing through the crowd, he reportedly exited the vehicle and opened fire with an assault rifle before being shot and killed by police at the scene.
Initial FBI reports indicated uncertainty about whether Jabbar acted alone. But a new statement from the Iraqi Supreme Court has shed further light on the case, revealing that Jabbar was not just a lone wolf but an operative tied to ISIS’s External (Foreign) Operations Office, the same network responsible for inciting or coordinating attacks globally.
While Jabbar himself was killed during the attack, Iraqi authorities have detained another individual believed to be responsible for directing or inciting the violence. According to Iraq’s judiciary, the arrest was made through international cooperation facilitated by the National Center for International Judicial Cooperation, which responded to a formal request for assistance from the United States.
“A person involved in the terrorist ISIS organization was arrested for inciting the hit-and-run incident that occurred in the United States of America in January 2025,” the Iraqi Supreme Court said.
The unnamed suspect is now expected to be tried under Iraq’s anti-terrorism laws, reflecting the increasingly transnational nature of ISIS’s influence and reach, even after its territorial collapse.
The attack has reignited fierce debate over border enforcement, vetting, and national security — particularly because it occurred during President Joe Biden’s final months in office, a period critics argue was marked by lax immigration and counterterrorism policies. While Jabbar was reportedly a U.S. resident, his radicalization and online activity went undetected — including a Facebook post expressing support for ISIS just hours before the massacre.
The Biden administration faced sharp backlash in the immediate aftermath for what opponents labeled a systemic failure to anticipate and prevent an attack from a known global terror network.
At the outset, the FBI stated it could not rule out the possibility of accomplices. However, federal officials now say Jabbar appears to have acted alone in the physical execution of the attack. Still, with international coordination now confirmed, the investigation remains open, and U.S. authorities are reportedly working closely with Iraq to track down other possible operatives connected to the Foreign Operations Office.
