FBI investigates potential associates of New Orleans attacker in US and abroad

Officials say evidence supports theory suspect, 42, carried out deadly attack alone but reveal leads are being pursued

Federal authorities investigating the avowed Islamic State (IS) sympathizer who carried out the New Year's Day Bourbon Street terror attack in New Orleans said they are still investigating his potential associates elsewhere in the US and abroad.

In a news briefing, officials from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said they were pursuing leads in Houston, Atlanta and Tampa, Florida. They also revealed that Shamsud-Din Jabbar visited New Orleans twice in the months before the attack, and, on one of those trips, rode a bicycle up Bourbon Street wearing smart Meta glasses and also rode around the French Quarter neighborhood - ostensibly, officials said, to prepare for the attack that he carried out, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more.