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The terrorist who killed 14 people and hurt 35 more in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year’s Day prepositioned bombs that used an extraordinarily rare explosive compound, senior law enforcement officials have told NBC News. The two devices didn’t detonate, but authorities are scrambling to learn how Shamsud-Din Jabbar was able to incorporate a type of explosive that has never before been used in a terror attack in America or Europe.
At around 3 am on Wednesday, Texas-born Houston resident Shamsud-Din Jabbar used a pickup truck to plow a path of carnage through a crowd of New Year’s partiers on Bourbon Street, before police killed him in a shootout. The 42-year-old US Army veteran’s plan had another dimension of death that he failed to execute: The FBI and ATF say he’d built two bombs that were rigged to be detonated with a transmitter that was found in his rented Ford F-150 truck.
The improvised explosive devices were placed in recreational coolers that Jabbar placed on Bourbon Street; that action was recorded on security cameras. Neither bomb exploded, and investigators are still trying to determine whether that fortunate fact springs from a design flaw, a malfunction or Jabbar’s failing to attempt to trigger the devices.
The officials who told NBC News about the rare explosive apparently stopped short of naming it, but emphasized that it was the first time it had been used in the United States, and had likewise never been used by terrorists anywhere in Europe. Investigators are now trying to determine how Jabbar learned about the extraordinary compound and how he was able to manufacture it.
Given the particulars of his military service, it’s unlikely Jabbar’s novel bomb-making knowledge was gained during his time in uniform. “Jabbar was in the regular Army as a Human Resource Specialist (42A) and Information Technology (IT) Specialist (25B) from March 2007 until January 2015 and then in the Army Reserve as an IT Specialist (25B) from January 2015 until July 2020,” a Pentagon official told Task & Purpose. “He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010. He held the rank of Staff Sergeant at the end of service.”