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Yesterday I went to bed writing about the scenes of great violence that had been witnessed on New Year’s Eve by organised groups in several European cities; capitals like Berlin, Paris or Brussels, but also Leipzig or Milan.
According to the Spanish public news agency Agencia EFE, authorities have identified Shamsud Din Bahar Jabbar as the perpetrator of the terrorist attack in New Orleans, also on New Year’s Eve. Using the usual Islamic terrorist method (Magdeburg this year and Barcelona in 2017), he violently ran over a large group of people in a van, indiscriminately and indiscriminately. He also reportedly engaged in a shootout with the police, who eventually shot him down.
The death toll has now risen to 15, and dozens have been injured, so perhaps by the time this post is published, unfortunately, there will be more killed.
The religious and political motivation of the attack is clear. Pure terrorism. Islamist. As in 9/11, as in London, Bataclan, Nice, Madrid or Barcelona. As in so many European cities. The killer, an American national, had an Islamic State flag in his van and had posted on social networks his desire to kill for his cause.
The fact that he was an American and, according to US media reports, had served in the US Army, makes the situation even worse and the fact that, as in Europe, it shows that hundreds, thousands of people are becoming radicalised in Western societies.
The circumstances of this attack are indisputable. Jabbar used a rented white van for his attack, entering the central Bourbon Street during New Year’s celebrations. The street, which is in the tourist heart of the city, was closed to traffic. It is also undisputed that his intention was to cause as much damage as possible.
An Islamic State flag, weapons and a possible improvised explosive device were found in the vehicle used for the mass shooting.
The key question now for the investigation is whether he had associates and was somehow part of a larger cell, as the FBI has reportedly found other homemade explosive devices in the neighbourhood where the attack took place, suggesting that he had accomplices or associates.
The link to the so-called Islamic State is deeply troubling. It cannot be forgotten that in the mid-2010s, the Islamic State (ISIS or Daesh) was responsible for several terrorist attacks in Europe. Perhaps the most famous and deadly was the one at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris in 2015 that left 130 dead.
In those cases, the assassins were trained in Syria, and sent from there to kill via the Balkan route. Illegal immigration route.
Hours later, there was the explosion of a so-called Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. The driver was killed and several people were injured. So far there is no effective connection between the two events. While the first is clearly an Islamist attack, the second remains to be determined.
This second vehicle that exploded in front of the Las Vegas Hotel was loaded with gas cylinders, camping fuel cylinders and high-calibre pyrotechnic mortars, according to the Las Vegas Police.
It seems clear, in any case, whether or not there is a connection between the two attacks, that it is not a coincidence. Trump will be sworn in on 20 January as the 47th president of the United States.
And it is clear that terror does not like Trump’s victory and the possible consequences of his victory in terms of combating Islamic terrorism in Israel, in Europe, in the whole world.