US authorities say the New Orleans attacker went to Egypt, Canada | Crime News

The US Army veteran visited the city twice in the months leading up to the truck attack, law enforcement officials said.

Authorities in the United States are investigating the significance of an international trip made by a truck driver who attended New Year’s Eve parties in New Orleans, law enforcement officials said.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a US Army veteran who announced his support for ISIL (ISIS) in videos posted online before the attack, is visiting Egypt and Canada in the summer of 2023, an FBI official said Sunday.

“Our agents are getting answers to where he went, met him, how that trip may or may not be related to his actions in our city,” Lyonel Myrthil, special agent in charge of the New Orleans branch office, told reporters. .

Jabbar also made at least two trips to New Orleans, in October and November, officials said.

On his first visit, he rode a bike around the city’s French Quarter, where he carried out the attack, while filming the scene with Meta smart glasses, according to police.

Myrthil said Jabbar was wearing glasses, but did not open them, when he carried out the New Year’s Day attack, which killed 14 people and injured 35.

The Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI, Christopher Raia, said that all the evidence indicates that Jabbar, an American citizen, carried out the attack alone, although the investigators were looking for contacts by him inside and outside the US.

“We have not seen any indications of cooperation in the United States, but we are still looking for possible cooperation in the US and outside our borders,” Raia told reporters.

Jabbar drove a rental van around the border and sped down the famous Bourbon Street before he was shot and killed by police, according to authorities.

US President Joe Biden is expected to visit New Orleans with first lady Jill Biden on Monday to honor the victims of this attack.