Iraq detains IS suspect accused of helping to incite New Orleans ramming attack

A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground rolled up behind a pickup truck driven into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans early on New Year’s Day (Gerald Herbert/AP)

An official with the so-called Islamic State (IS) group has been detained in Iraq, suspected of being involved with inciting the pickup truck-ramming attack in New Orleans that killed more than a dozen people celebrating the start of 2025, Iraqi authorities said.

Iraqi authorities had received requests from the US to help in the investigation of the attack in the predawn hours of New Year’s Day in the famous French Quarter of New Orleans, Iraqi judicial officials said.