U.S. law enforcement and intelligence services are concerned about the possibility of similar car-ramming attacks following the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, according to an intelligence bulletin published Friday.
The bulletin was published a day after the FBI said Texan Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran, was “100% inspired” by the Islamic State militant group to ram a pickup truck into a crowd celebrating New Year’s Day in New Orleans, where he killed at least 14 people and injured dozens more.
Jabbar was later killed in a shootout with police.
The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center of the United States “are concerned about the possibility of imitation or retaliation attacks,” according to the intelligence bulletin published by the three agencies and to which they had access. Reuters.
“It is likely that (these types of attacks) will continue to be attractive given the ease of acquisition of the vehicles and the low threshold of skill necessary to carry out an attack,” said the bulletin sent to US law enforcement agencies.
The document urges law enforcement and private security companies to be aware that, in many previous cases, the attackers who rammed vehicles into crowds were armed and continued their attacks with firearms or knives.
The Jan. 1 incident in New Orleans’ crowded French Quarter was the seventh attack in the United States since 2001 inspired by a foreign extremist organization, according to the bulletin.
The use of knives and firearms has been more common in this type of attacks, but vehicles could represent a growing threat, according to the bulletin.
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