A 42-year-old Texas man rammed a pickup into New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans early Wednesday, killing 10 people. He had an Islamic State flag in his truck, the F.B.I. said.
The terrorist group, also known as ISIS, has left a brutal legacy of death and destruction across the world. Though the group no longer controls significant territory in the Middle East, it has continued to launch terror attacks around the world and inspire believers of its extreme ideology to carry out atrocities of their own.
Law enforcement officials said on Wednesday that they were trying to determine the suspect’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. Counterterrorism specialists pointed to several telltale signs.
“By carrying an ISIS flag with him during the attack, the suspect wanted to show that he was a true believer, aligned with the ISIS cause, and perhaps hoping to trigger others into following suit,” said Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in New York.
Here’s what you need to know:
History
The Islamic State is a Sunni Muslim insurgent group that traces its origins to Al Qaeda in Iraq, which nearly pushed Iraq into civil war before it was defeated by local militias and American troops.