The United States has been faced with a significant increase in violent extremism and a persistent threat of "homegrown" terrorism for the past 10 years.
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The United States has been faced with a significant increase in violent extremism and a persistent threat of "homegrown" terrorism for the past 10 years, US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said.
"We have not only the persistent threat of foreign terrorism - that, of course, created the Department of Homeland Security - but we have adverse nation-states, and for the past 10 years, we've seen a significant increase in what we term 'homegrown violent extremism,'" Mayorkas said in an interview with ABC News.
The country has "a very difficult threat landscape" at the moment, which means that not only federal and local officials, but the residents as well need to be aware of it and take precautions to prevent violence, the Homeland Security chief added.
In the early hours of January 1, a truck rammed into a crowd of people amid New Year's celebrations in New Orleans in the US, killing 14 people. The driver, later identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old US-born Army veteran from Texas, was killed in a shootout with police officers. The FBI recovered a flag of the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) from the back of his vehicle.
Later in the same day, a Tesla Cybertuck exploded near the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, killing the driver and injuring seven others. The driver of the car who is suspected of having exploded it was identified as Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old US Army soldier.
Sputnik