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(Bloomberg) — New Orleans truck attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar traveled to Egypt and Canada in the summer of 2023, and investigators are examining whether the foreign trips were part of his preparations, an FBI official said.
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“Our agents are getting answers as to where he went, whom he met with, how those trips may or may not tie into his actions in our city,” Lyonel Myrthil, special agent in charge of the bureau’s New Orleans field office, told reporters Sunday.
Jabbar, who killed 14 people in the New Year’s Day attack in the city’s French Quarter, also made two trips to New Orleans in October and November. During a stay in late October, he recorded video while riding through the French Quarter on a bicycle, Myrthil said.
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Jabbar traveled to Cairo from June 22 until July 3, 2023, then flew to Canada’s Ontario province on July 10 before returning to the US on July 13, Myrthil said.
President Joe Biden plans to travel to New Orleans on Monday to “grieve with the families and community members impacted by the tragic attack” and meet with officials on the ground, the White House said.
Jabbar, a US citizen and Army veteran, died in a shootout with police after driving a pickup truck into a crowded street during New Year’s celebrations. Officials said he had an Islamic State flag in the vehicle.
Investigators released video Sunday that shows Jabbar placing two improvised explosive devices on Bourbon Street shortly before the attack.
Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican who led the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the last Congress, said “we’re worried about” Jabbar’s travels to Egypt.
“He was involved with a rare bomb-making material that was not available in the United States,” McCaul said on ABC’s This Week, adding that there “seem to be some real ISIS connections here that need to be followed up.”
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