Marines tighten access to Camp Pendleton in wake of New Orleans attack

Camp Pendleton has tightened access to the sprawling Marine base in North County in the wake of the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people.

“Commander NORTHCOM has directed all military installations to implement heightened security measures at all entry gates to include 100% ID CHECKS, random inspections, and the suspension of the Trusted Travel Program until further notice,” Camp Pendleton said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The message was referring to the U.S. Northern Command, a branch of the Defense Department that protects the U.S. homeland and surrounding waters.

As of noon Saturday, the agency had not issued any similar statement of its own about other California Marine bases, including Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. The Marines are part of the Navy, which also had not issued an advisory for its local bases.

Camp Pendleton is the largest Marine base on the West Coast. It has a daily population of about 80,000, roughly 42,000 of them active-duty service members, the Marines say. Many of the residents are contractors and visitors.

In the early morning hours of Jan. 1, the FBI says Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran from Houston, used his pickup truck to run down revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

A flag of the Islamic State extremist group was found in the truck, and authorities later learned he had posted pro-Islamic State videos on social media. He was shot to death by police shortly after the attack.

The incident came the same day that Matthew Alan Livelsberger, an active-duty member of the Army, set off an explosion in his Tesla Cybertruck in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.

Authorities say Livelsberger shot himself just before the explosion occurred.

The two incidents were not linked, the FBI says.