Investigators probing New Orleans Islamic State terrorist's Canada link

New York, Jan 6: As investigations into the New Orleans attack cross international borders, a spotlight has been put on the terrorist's possible links to Canada from where terror threats to the US emanate. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent Lyonel Myrthil said on Sunday that Shamsud-Din Jabbar had visited Ontario Province in Canada for three days last year. His visit there in July 2023 followed a trip to Egypt starting the previous month.

"Our agents are getting answers as to where he went, who he met with and how those trips may or may not tie into his actions here in our city," Myrthil said at a news conference in New Orleans. Jabbar has proclaimed his allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) and said he had joined. Myrthil said the investigation is now "crossing state and international borders."

Although FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia had earlier ruled out that "anyone else is involved in this attack," the trip to Canada raises the prospects of others helping him or goading him because of documented terror threats from Canada to the US. According to a Canadian Customs and Border Protection Service, 358 people on terror watch lists were caught trying to enter the US from Canada in the fiscal year 2024.

Last year, two members of the House of Representatives, Mike Kelly and Ryan Zinke, who head the Northern Border Security Caucus, introduced a resolution calling for action against "the alarming number of suspects on the terror watchlist who are crossing into the United States along the Northern border with Canada."

Just last September, a Pakistani, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, was arrested near Canada's border with the US as he was on his way to New York allegedly to carry out terrorist attacks. He also had IS links, according to US officials, who charged him with attempting to provide support to the terrorist organisation. Fourteen people were killed, and 35 were hurt when Jabbar drove a vehicle flying the black IS flag into a crowd of people celebrating the dawn of the New Year in New Orleans French Quarter, a tourist draw.

He was killed in a shootout with police when he got out of his pick-up truck, guns blazing. Investigators are trying to discern how Jabbar, an Army ex-serviceman who had served in Afghanistan and had worked for a prestigious financial service company, had become radicalised. ABC News reported that Orleans prosecutor Jason Williams said the "next most important phase of the investigation is to find out how that radicalisation happened and if it happened on that trip."

According to his brother Abdur Jabbar, they were raised as Christians, but Shams-Ud Din converted to Islam. He told ABC News that his brother said that he was visiting Egypt because it was "because it was cheap and beautiful."