New Orleans attacker created explosives with compound never before used in US, Europe — NBC

The man behind the deadly ramming and shooting attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve had also created two homemade bombs using a rare explosive compound, NBC News reports, citing senior US law enforcement officials.

According to the report, the bombs — which did not go off in the attack — were created with an explosive compound that had never before been used in a terror attack inside the US or in Europe.

Officials tell NBC that investigators now need to look into how Shamsud-Din Jabbar learned about the explosive compound, and how he managed to create it.

Fourteen people were killed and about 30 were injured when Jabbar drove a rented vehicle into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street in an attack inspired by the Islamic State terror group.

Authorities found crude bombs that had been planted in the neighborhood in an apparent attempt to cause more carnage, and the two improvised explosive devices left in coolers several blocks apart were rendered safe at the scene, officials said. Other devices were determined to be non-functional.

On Friday, the AP reported that federal authorities searching Jabbar’s Houston home had found a workbench in his garage and hazardous materials believed to have been used to make the explosive devices.