The New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans is a warning that ISIS, and foreign terror groups in general, still have influence in the United States, the Pentagon’s civilian head of special operations said Tuesday.
Though the Islamic State and al-Qaida aren’t able to launch attacks on America from abroad, their online campaigning can still reach vulnerable targets, Chris Maier said during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event.
“I think many of the tactics we saw, and the overall framing, is not something that’s that surprising,” Maier said. “Which is unfortunate, of course, because as a veteran of the counter-terrorism environment, we spend a lot of time and a lot of resources trying to focus on preventing these sorts of attacks.”
The tactic of using a vehicle, he said, hearkens back to the “opportunistic” attacks al-Qaida encouraged in 2010 on the Arabian Peninsula.
A 9/11-style attack on the U.S. is unlikely now, he said, because ISIS and al-Qaida’s capabilities have been so degraded by U.S. and coalition efforts in the Middle East.
“So they’ve looked to inspire individuals that already have access and in some cases, over time, develop the ideological desire to kill their fellow citizens,” Maier said.
That appears to be the case with Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a native Texas and U.S. Army veteran, according to law enforcement reports following the attack.
“The Europeans have experienced this, and certainly this is a good reminder again, that it still exists in the United States, despite all the efforts and all the good work overseas,” Maier said.
Though the Biden administration wound down use of the Global War on Terror label in 2021, deployed U.S. forces still carry out counter-terror operations in the Middle East.
“You know, simultaneous with this attack is a tremendous campaign by Central Command to put a lot of pressure on the remnants of ISIS in Syria and Iraq,” Maier said.
As recently as last week, CENTCOM teamed up with Iraqi forces to target ISIS camps in the Hamrin mountains. During the same period, CENTCOM supported Syrian Democratic Forces in capturing an ISIS leader in Dayr az-Zawr, according to a Monday release.
The future of operations in Syria is unclear, Maier added, as the deposing of former President Bashar al-Assad means the U.S. will have to negotiate its presence in Syria with new leadership.
CENTCOM has been putting “a lot of focus on what the change in the political environment in Syria will mean for potentially ISIS, and our longstanding ability to keep that pressure on the core there,” he said.
It’s a similar story for Iraq, as the multinational coalition that’s been stamping out the remnants of ISIS in that country is set to end no later than September, a decision that came out of the U.S. Iraq Joint Security Cooperation Dialogue in Washington, D.C. last summer.
The move does leave room for a new U.S.-Iraq partnership “in a manner that supports Iraqi forces and maintains pressure on ISIS,” the State Department said in September 2024.
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