US President Joe Biden will travel to New Orleans next week to meet with the families of victims of this week’s devastating truck-ramming attack, the White House announced Friday.
On Monday, the president and First Lady Jill Biden "will grieve with the families and community members impacted by the tragic attack on January 1 and meet with officials on the ground," according to a White House statement quoted by AFP.
The tragedy unfolded on New Year's Day when Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a US Army veteran who the FBI says had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization, drove a pickup truck into crowds in New Orleans' bustling French Quarter entertainment district. The attack left 15 dead, including the perpetrator himself who was shot dead by police, and numerous others wounded.
Authorities revealed that the attacker had also planted two homemade bombs in the city, though neither detonated.
On Thursday, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia confirmed in a press conference that Jabbar acted alone.
Raia called the attack an "act of terrorism” and said that it was “premeditated and an evil act.”
"We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack except for Shamsud-Din Jabbar,” he added.
The New Orleans attack coincided with another alarming incident in Las Vegas, where a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel just hours later. The sole fatality in that incident was the Tesla’s driver, identified as an off-duty US special forces soldier.
Authorities have yet to determine a motive for the Las Vegas explosion but said there appears to be no connection to the attack in New Orleans.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)