Washington — Police said Wednesday they recovered the distinctive black flag of the Islamic State extremist group from the truck an American from Texas plowed into New Year’s partygoers in New Orleans’ French Quarter, killing 15 people.
The investigation is expected to look in part at any support or inspiration driver Shamsud-Din Jabbar received from violent groups based in the Middle East or at least 19 associated groups around the world.
The Islamic State, which was routed from its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq by a U.S.-led coalition more than five years ago, has focused more on seizing territory in the Middle East than launching large-scale al Qaeda-style attacks against the West. .
But on its own soil, the Islamic State has welcomed every opportunity to behead Americans and other foreigners who come within its reach. And although it has weakened in recent years, it has succeeded in inspiring people around the world who are driven by its ideology to carry out horrific attacks against innocent civilians.
Here’s a look at the Islamic State, its current status, and some of the sectarian militant groups and lone wolves killed under the Islamic State’s flag.
The Islamic State is also known as IS and ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
It began as a separate group from Al Qaeda.
Under the leadership of leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, IS had captured huge amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria by 2014. IS has murdered and abused members of other religions within the territory it controls, and has targeted fellow Sunni Muslims who deviate from its harsh interpretation of Islam. .
In 2019, a U.S.-led military intervention drove out the Islamic State (IS) to the last bit of its territory. In the same year, al-Baghdadi committed suicide by detonating a bomb vest as U.S. forces approached him, and two children nearby also lost their lives.
The central Islamic State group is now a scattered and much weakened entity trying to regain fighting power and territory in Syria and Iraq. Experts warn that the group is reorganizing there.
And what about that ISIS flag? Typically, this is an entirely black banner with white Arabic script expressing the central tenets of the Islamic faith. Many Muslims around the world view the group’s coercive violence as a distortion of their religion.
Some experts argue that the Islamic State is powerful today partly as a brand, inspiring both militant groups and individuals in attacks in which the group itself may not have an actual role.
The Islamic State’s ruthless creed and military success helped promote affiliated groups in Africa, Asia, and Europe. This is a very decentralized alliance.
Many factions have carried out deadly attacks, such as the March 2024 attack blamed on the Afghanistan-based Islamic State affiliate that killed about 130 people in a Moscow theater.
If confirmed to have been inspired by the Islamic State, the New Orleans attack would be the largest attack on American soil in years.
The threat from the group’s radicalized followers in the United States appeared to have waned since a surge in violent plots about a decade ago.
These attacks include the 2014 attack by a husband-and-wife team that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, and the 2016 massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where a gunman took the oath of allegiance and killed 59 people. The 9/11 terrorist attacks called the leader of the Islamic State at the time and blamed the ‘dirty ways of the West’.
These attacks have coincided with an influx of thousands of Westerners, some of them Americans, who have traveled to Syria to join the so-called caliphate. In addition to al-Baghdadi, other officials were also eliminated in the Pentagon raids, and the FBI had considerable success in thwarting the plot before it came to fruition.
But over the past year, FBI officials have warned that the international terrorism threat has risen significantly since the Hamas rampage in Israel in October 2023 and the resulting Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
The SITE Intelligence Group reported IS supporters celebrating in an online chat group on Saturday.
“As for his younger brother, he is a legend. Quoted ‘Allahu Akbar’ or ‘God is great’.
