New Orleans truck attack
The FBI said that at about 3:15am CST on 1 January 2025, "an individual drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans". It identified him as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, "a U.S. citizen from Texas", said "An ISIS flag was located in the vehicle" and said it was investigating the attack "as an act of terrorism". On 3 January, the FBI and ATF said "Fourteen innocent people were killed in the attack" and that 35 injured people had been identified. They said New Orleans police "shot and killed Jabbar after he opened fire on them and the crowd". According to the FBI, Jabbar planted two improvised explosive devices on Bourbon Street and intended to detonate them with a transmitter found in the truck. ATF found that he had also set a fire at a rental home on Mandeville Street in an effort to destroy evidence.
Early reports differed on the death toll. On the day, the ABC reported at least 15 dead, and the FBI's first statement said "at least 10". The FBI's later figure was 14 victims. The SMH quoted FBI official Christopher Raia saying Jabbar was "100 per cent inspired by ISIS".
DFAT told the ABC that "no Australians were known to be involved", and that the Australian Embassy in Washington and the Consulate-General in Houston were engaging with US authorities. The SMH reported that Australian security experts called the attack a "wake-up call", noting that ASIO had raised the national terrorism threat level to "probable" in August 2024.
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