Kopitar scores twice in third, Kings fight back for 5-4 win over Flyers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anze Kopitar scored twice, Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist, and the Los Angeles Kings got their seventh straight home win by beating the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 on Sunday night.

Kevin Fiala and Warren Foegele also scored for the Kings, who trailed 4-2 midway through the second period before rebounding to sweep a back-to-back after defeating recent playoff nemesis Edmonton in overtime on Saturday. David Rittich made 17 saves.

Kopitar was in the right place to redirect Quinton Byfield's rebound in and tie it at 4 early in the third, before following it up by chopping in Kempe's shot during a power play at 8:55 for the 5-4 lead.

Matvei Michkov had a goal and an assist for the Flyers after being benched for the third period against Anaheim on Saturday. Tyson Foerster, Scott Laughton and Joel Farabee also scored, and Aleksei Kolosov made 15 saves.

Flyers: Michkov responded well after some tough coaching from John Tortorella, ending a seven-game point drought.

Kings: Kopitar is 19 seasons into his Kings career but shows no signs of slowing down. He is up to 12 goals and 27 assists through 36 games.

Foegele showed good composure in following up his rebound on a breakaway with 4:56 left in the second, getting the Kings back within 4-3 and setting the stage for Kopitar's final-period heroics.

Los Angeles is a resilient bunch, improving to 8-7-1 when allowing the first goal.

The Flyers visit San Jose on Tuesday, and the Kings host New Jersey on Wednesday.

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Los Angeles Kings left wing Kevin Fiala (22) looks to pass the puck while under pressure from Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Egor Zamula (5) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)

Los Angeles Kings right wing Alex Laferriere (14) looks to shoot the puck while Philadelphia Flyers right wing Bobby Brink (10) defends during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)

Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Egor Zamula controls the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Los Angeles Kings, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)

Los Angeles Kings left wing Warren Foegele shoots the puck and scores during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)

Los Angeles Kings defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (84) and Philadelphia Flyers center Morgan Frost (48) vie for the puck during the third period of an NHL hockey game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)

Philadelphia Flyers right wing Garnet Hathaway (19) and Los Angeles Kings right wing Alex Laferriere (14) collide near the Kings' goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)

Los Angeles Kings right wing Adrian Kempe (9) celebrates with his team after scoring a goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Philadelphia Flyers, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)

Philadelphia Flyers right wing Travis Konecny (11) and Los Angeles Kings defenseman Jordan Spence (21) vie for the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)

Philadelphia Flyers center Scott Laughton, right, celebrates with right wing Matvei Michkov (39) after scoring a goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Los Angeles Kings, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)

Los Angeles Kings center Anze Kopitar reacts after missing a shot during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Philadelphia Flyers, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI says it recovered the black banner of the Islamic State group from the truck that an American man from Texas smashed into New Year's partygoers in New Orleans' French Quarter, killing 15 people.

The investigation is expected to look in part at any support or inspiration that driver Shamsud-Din Jabbar may have drawn from that violent Middle East-based group or from any of at least 19 affiliated groups around the world.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday evening that the FBI had told him that “mere hours before the attack, (Jabbar) posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired” by IS.

Routed from its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq by a U.S. military-led coalition more than five years ago, IS has focused on seizing territory in the Middle East more than on staging massive al-Qaida-style attacks on the West.

But in its home territory, IS has welcomed any chance to behead Americans and other foreigners who come within its reach. The main group at peak strength claimed a handful of coordinated operations targeting the West, including a 2015 Paris plot that killed 130 people. It has had success, although abated in recent years, in inspiring people around the world who are drawn to its ideology to carry out ghastly attacks on innocent civilians.

Here's a look at IS, its current status, and some of the offshoot armed groups and so-called lone wolves that have killed under the group's flag.

The main group also goes by IS, ISIS, or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

It began as a breakaway group from al-Qaida.

Under leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, IS had seized stunning amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria by 2014. Within territory under its control, it killed, raped and otherwise abused members of other faiths and targeted fellow Sunni Muslims who strayed from its harsh interpretation of Islam.

By 2019, a U.S.-led military intervention had driven IS from the cities and towns of its self-claimed state. Al-Baghdadi killed himself, and two children near him, that same year, detonating an explosive vest as U.S. forces closed in on him.

Currently, the main IS is a scattered and much weakened organization working to regain fighting strength and territory in Syria and Iraq. Experts warn that the group is reconstituting itself there.

And that flag? Typically, it's a black banner with white Arabic letters expressing a central tenet of the Islamic faith. Countless Muslims around the world see the coercive violence of the group as a perversion of their religion.

Some experts argue that IS is powerful today partly as a brand, inspiring both militant groups and individuals in attacks that the group itself may have no real role in.

The group's credo and military successes have led armed extremist organizations in Africa, Asia and Europe to swear allegiance to it. It's a greatly decentralized alliance.

Many of the offshoot groups have carried out lethal attacks. Islamic State-Khorasan, an Afghanistan-based group, is one of the most lethal currently. Attacks linked to that affiliate include the March 2024 killings of about 130 people at a Moscow theater, the August 2021 bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and about 170 Afghans as the U.S. was withdrawing from Afghanistan, and killings in Pakistan and elsewhere.

The New Orleans rampage reflects the deadliest IS-inspired attack on U.S. soil in several years.

Other attacks over the past decade include a 2014 shooting rampage by a husband-and-wife team who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, and a 2016 massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by a gunman who fatally shot 49 people, pledged his allegiance on a 911 call to al-Baghdadi and raged against the “filthy ways of the West.”

Those attacks coincided with an influx of thousands of Westerners — some of them Americans — who traveled to Syria in hopes of joining the so-called caliphate.

In the aftermath of those killings, the threat from radicalized followers of the group had appeared to wane in the Defense Department strikes have taken out other IS members and the FBI has had significant success in disrupting plots before they come to fruition.

But over the past year, FBI officials have warned about a significantly elevated threat of international terrorism following Hamas’ rampage in Israel in October 2023 and the resulting Israeli strikes in Gaza.

The SITE intelligence group reported IS supporters celebrating in online chat groups Wednesday.

“If it’s a brother, he’s a legend. Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great,” it quoted one as saying.

President Joe Biden makes a statement on the latest developments in New Orleans from Camp David, Md., Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Emergency services attend the scene on Bourbon Street after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans' Canal and Bourbon Street, Wednesday Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

This undated passport photo provided by the FBI on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, shows Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar. (FBI via AP)

A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground rolled up behind a pickup truck that a man drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing and injuring a number of people, early Wednesday morning, Jan. 1, 2025. The FBI said they recovered an Islamic State group flag, which is black with white lettering, from the vehicle. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)