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US warns of possible copycat attacks after New Orleans truck rampage

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US warns of possible copycat attacks after New Orleans truck rampage

US law enforcement and intelligence agencies are concerned about copycat vehicle-ramming attacks following the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans by a US Army veteran, according to a US law enforcement intelligence bulletin published on Friday.
The bulletin was issued a day after the FBI said Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas native, was “100 per cent inspired” by Islamic State militant group to drive a truck into New Year’s Day revellers in New Orleans, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens of others.

Jabbar, who flew an Isis flag from the rear of the truck he had rented, subsequently was killed in a shoot-out with police.

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the US National Counterterrorism Center “are concerned about possible copycat or retaliatory attacks,” said the intelligence bulletin published by the three agencies and reviewed by Reuters.

Such attacks “are likely to remain attractive for aspiring attackers given vehicles’ ease of acquisition and the low skill threshold necessary to conduct an attack,” said the bulletin issued to US law enforcement agencies.

The bulletin noted that as of Thursday, Isis had not claimed responsibility for the New Orleans attack. But the group’s online supporters celebrated it and a December 20 vehicle-ramming in Germany even though that incident did not appear to have been Isis-inspired, it said.
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