Iraqi authorities on Tuesday confirmed the arrest of an ISIS member accused of inciting the New Year’s terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans that left 15 people dead, including the perpetrator.
The arrest comes months after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Texas killed 14 civilians and injured 57 others when he rammed a Ford F-150 through crowds of people celebrating New Year’s on the famous New Orleans street around 3 a.m. Jan. 1. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with police.
Iraqi authorities said their investigation into the ISIS member came at the request of American authorities but did not expand on exactly what incited the deadly attack. Officials are not releasing the suspect’s name.
The suspect will be tried in Iraq under the country’s anti-terror laws for being a member of ISIS, according to a translated statement from the Iraq judiciary.
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“With efforts from the National Center for International Judicial Cooperation, 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, which led to the death of 15 people and the injury of 30 others,” the judiciary said, according to a translated version of the statement, adding that the center “received a request from the United States of America to assist in the investigations related to the terrorist operation that took place in the city of New Orleans, in which a gunman ran over a crowd of celebrants with a truck before opening fire on them.”
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The First Karkh Investigation Court, “based on the investigations and analysis of the evidence, identified the identity of the accused and arrested him in Iraq as he is a member of what is called the Foreign Operations Office of the terrorist ISIS organization,” the judiciary said.
FBI New Orleans said in a statement: “The FBI’s investigation into the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans remains active and ongoing. While we continue to work with our law enforcement partners, both in the U.S. and internationally, based on the information to date, we continue to believe that Shamsud Din-Jabbar acted alone in carrying out the attack on Bourbon Street. We continue to follow all leads and encourage anyone who may have information to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov.”
The FBI previously said it had not ruled out the possibility of accomplices being involved in the attack even though Jabbar acted alone, saying the suspect had previously visited New Orleans on two occasions, on Oct. 30, 2024, and Nov. 10, 2024. He also visited Cairo and Toronto prior to the attack.
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Federal authorities also said Jabbar was inspired by ISIS.
“[H]e appears to have been inspired – from afar – by ISIS. And it is, in many ways, the most challenging type of terrorist threat we face,” former FBI Director Christopher Wray told “60 Minutes” in a wide-ranging interview that aired in January. “You’re talking about guys like this, who radicalize not in years but in weeks, and whose method of attack is still very deadly but fairly crude. And if you think about that old saying about connecting the dots, there are not a lot of dots out there to connect. And there’s very little time in which to connect them.”
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The Texas native was a twice-divorced Army veteran who, despite a lucrative job at a large consulting firm, had a history of financial struggles and missed child support payments, records show.
During his visits to New Orleans months before the attack, Jabbar used Meta smart glasses to take videos of his surroundings as he rode a bike through the French Quarter.
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On Dec. 31, Jabbar rented a Ford truck in Houston and then drove it to New Orleans, where he checked in to an Airbnb. Authorities would later find bomb-making materials and remnants of a fire at the property, saying Jabbar likely attempted to cover up his crime by attempting to burn evidence at the rental home in the St. Roch neighborhood, about two miles from the French Quarter.
“It’s pretty clear so far that this is a guy who was radicalized online and who was determined to try to murder as many innocent people as he could in the name of ISIS,” Wray said in his interview with “60 Minutes.”
Fox News’ Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.
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