Officials have been keen to emphasise how Islamic State inspired the deadly rampage of suspected New Orleans attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar.

At a news conference a little earlier, the FBI detailed how he’d posted several social media videos expressing his support for the terror group hours before he killed 14 people in the city.

He had joined ISIS before the summer.

Media reports say ISIS is yet to claim responsibility or even comment on the attack, but adds that FBI’s assessment “really underlines what many security officials have been saying, ieven in the UK”.

That is of a “resurgent threat” from ISIS, she says.

Of particular concern is its “ability to inspire lone wolf attackers to carry out such horror”.

‘He could have done far, far worse’

A former FBI counter-terrorism analyst has said it’s “very difficult” for American law enforcement and intelligence agencies to stop the kind of lone wolf attack carried out in New Orleans this week.

Suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar is believed to have been radicalised and supported ISIS, but is now thought to have carried out the vehicle rampage which killed at least 14 people by himself.

Dr Javed Ali told Sky News such operators can be “the hardest to stop”, with larger and more sophisticated terror plots in many ways “easier” for intelligence agencies to get wind of.

He admits the FBI and local law enforcement sometimes just have to be “very lucky” to spot the kind of radicalisation Jabbar appeared to have succumbed to before they launch some kind of attack.

But the attacker “could have done far, far worse”, he notes, with local police having shot him dead so soon after he emerged from his vehicle.

Had they not, his rampage could have extended into a shooting spree that claimed even more lives.