A terrorist from the Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), who was extradited to the United States in the early Wednesday morning hours, confessed to the FBI that he played key roles in the infamous bombing of Abbey Gate at the Kabul, Afghanistan airport that took the lives of soldiers and civilians, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He also claimed taking part in a deadly attack on a concert hall in Moscow, and a blast targeting Canadian embassy security guards in Kabul.

President Donald Trump on Saturday said he ordered military airstrikes in Somalia against the Islamic State or ISIS, which were aimed at a terrorist attack organizer and others from the terrorist group.

The vehicle-ramming attack by a U.S. Army veteran that killed 15 and injured more than 30 holiday revelers in New Orleans on Wednesday highlights the threat of a resurgent Islamic State that has a history of inspiring disaffected individuals to commit mass murder.

That could force a review of U.S. priorities that have lately focused on Russia and China as national security threats while giving a back seat to lone-wolf jihadist terrorist plots, analysts said.

Early on New Year’s Day, police say, a 42-year-old Army veteran drove a rented truck flying a black ISIS flag into a crowd of New Orleans revelers, killing at least 15 people and injuring over 30 more. The attack, which the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism, comes on the heels of a similar attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, that killed five and injured dozens, and it follows an FBI warning to law enforcement on Dec. 6 to prepare for low-tech vehicle ramming attacks at outdoor crowds during the holiday season. 

Ayear before twin New Year’s Day incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas darkened the start of 2025, the Department of Homeland Security commissioned a study that warned America was facing a new era of terrorism and was ill-prepared to protect its citizens from that threat.

Both suspects in a foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift shows in Vienna appeared to be inspired by the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, Austrian authorities said Thursday, and investigators found bomb-making materials at one of their homes. Officials said one of the two confessed to planning to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue.”

The 19-year-old Austrian who masterminded a foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift fans at a concert in Vienna with a bomb or knife had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group, authorities said on Thursday.

The main suspect, who has North Macedonian roots, made a full confession in custody, Austria's general director for public security Franz Ruf told a news conference.

ISIS-K, the terrorist organization that killed more than 140 Russians March 22 in Moscow, would like to replicate the attack in the United States, but it lacks the capability, current and former senior U.S. officials say.

“The U.S. remains target No. 1 for ISIS-K,” said Mark Quantock, a retired two-star Army general who oversaw intelligence operations for U.S. Central Command. “They clearly would like to strike the homeland, but their challenge is penetrating our security, which has proven to be quite resilient in recent years.”

In Loyob, they do not believe anyone from their village was capable of taking part in the jihadist massacre at Moscow's Crocus City Hall.

But Faridun Shamsiddin is now one of four Tajik citizens held in a Moscow jail suspected of murdering at least 143 people last week. The 25-year-old is also accused of recruiting two other men to help the gunmen.

He left Loyob, about 40km north-west of the capital Dushanbe, several months ago in search of work in Russia.

Three facts stand out as clear amid the lack of hard information about the perpetrators of Friday’s appalling terrorist attack on Russia, and all three shine a light on dangers inherent in the new multipolar world we now inhabit.