New Orleans ‘terror’ attack suspect was inspired by ISIS

Tesla Truck explodes outside Trump hotel

FBI officials have said they are looking for any links between the deadly attack and a separate incident on Wednesday in which a Tesla Cybertruck packed with gasoline canisters and large firework mortars exploded in flames outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House on January 20

Cowardly terrorist attack: PM Modi

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday strongly condemned the “cowardly terrorist attack” in New Orleans and expressed solidarity with the victims and their families. In a post on X, Modi wrote, “We strongly condemn the cowardly terrorist attack in New Orleans. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. May they find strength and solace as they heal from this tragedy”
• Earlier, messages of condolences poured in from global leaders — including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

A US Army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans, killing 15 people, had posted videos to social media hours before the carnage saying he was inspired by the Islamic State group and expressing a desire to kill, the President said.

The FBI said it was investigating early Wednesday’s attack in which the driver steered around a police blockade and slammed into revelers before being shot dead by police as a terrorist act and did not believe he acted alone.

Investigators found guns and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device in the vehicle — which bore the flag of the Islamic State group — along with other explosive devices elsewhere in the city’s famed French Quarter.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday evening that the FBI found the videos the driver posted to social media. He called the attack a “despicable” and “heinous act”. The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into a macabre scene of maimed victims, bloodied bodies and pedestrians fleeing for safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. In addition to the dead, dozens of people were hurt. A college football playoff game at the nearby Superdome was postponed until Thursday.

Zion Parsons, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi, said he saw the truck “barreling through, throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air.” “Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering,” said Parsons, whose friend Nikyra Dedeaux was among the people killed.

“This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.

The attack is the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence and the deadliest IS-inspired assault on US soil in years.