Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who carried out the terrorist attack in New Orleans on New Year's that killed 14, put together two bombs apparently using the powerful RDX compound that did not detonate but could have killed or wounded hundreds of people, NBC News reported on Wednesday.
"As horrible as it is that he killed and injured all of these people, it could have been exponentially worse in the truest sense of the term had these devices actually functioned," said Scott Sweetow, a retired executive with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and former director of the FBI's Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center.
Sweetow emphasized that "it would have been absolute carnage, [and] you'd be looking at literally hundreds of casualties" if a bomb made with RDX had gone off in the city's French Quarter tourist area, comparing it to the force of multiple hand grenades thrown into a crowded street.
Federal law enforcement officials said the bomb failed to explode because Jabbar used the wrong device to detonate it. Experts were baffled that he apparently knew to use RDX but not how to get it to detonate.
An hour before driving a truck through the crowds on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, Jabbar had placed his homemade bombs inside two coolers and placed them on the same street. It is unclear whether he carried out the truck attack because the bombs failed to detonate or if using the vehicle to kill was always a part of his plan, according to NBC News.
At Jabbar's home in Houston, investigators found explosive materials that field tests identified as RDX, which is not easy to obtain in the United States. A military-grade explosive, it's also used for specialized purposes by demolition and mining companies but can only be bought with a federal license.