Islamic State Editorial on the New Orleans Attack

Unsurprisingly, when news emerged of a truck-ramming and shooting attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, the question arose as to whether the attack had some connection to the Islamic State: a question that became more apparent when news emerged of an Islamic State banner being found in the attacker’s vehicle. In what has now become a familiar routine, analysts (myself included) were on the lookout for a possible official claim of responsibility for the attack from the Islamic State.

However, rather than issuing an official claim, the Islamic State has instead issued an editorial on the matter, beginning with a reminder that the Islamic State has specific criteria (though not outlined in the editorial) to determine whether it should issue an official claim of responsibility, and thus does not claim every attack even if the perpetrator follows the group’s recommendations for conducting attacks and turns out to be a supporter of the group.