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According to four U.S. officials, the man linked to the rental of the Tesla cybertruck that exploded outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday is a U.S. special forces soldier assigned to the 10th . Special Forces Group is assigned.

The man, who has not been publicly identified, is a US Army special forces sergeant and holds the rank of master sergeant, a senior rank, officials told CNN. He was on active duty but was on leave from Germany, where he served with the 10th Group, at the time of the incident, three officials said.

The driver of the Cybertruck was killed and seven other people nearby were injured on New Year’s Day when a combination of fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel in the bed of the vehicle were detonated by a device controlled by the driver, police said.

The explosion could have been significantly worse had it not been for the vehicle’s body construction, which helped contain the blast, police said.

The FBI is investigating whether the explosion is related to terrorism, and officials pointed to the implications of the Tesla vehicle and the hotel’s namesake.

“It’s a Tesla truck, and we know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and it’s Trump Tower,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Wednesday. “So there’s obviously some cause for concern and that’s something we continue to focus on.”

The FBI in Denver, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Colorado Springs Police Department are conducting “law enforcement operations” in connection with the explosion at a home in Colorado Springs, the FBI said.

The explosion bore some general similarities to the vehicle attack in New Orleans on Wednesday, as both involved a symbolic target on New Year’s Day, a truck rented through the website Turo and a suspect with a military background. Authorities said they were investigating possible links between the two attacks but repeatedly described the Las Vegas explosion as an “isolated incident.”

“At this point, there is no definitive connection between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas,” FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said Thursday.

The Cybertruck was rented in Colorado and arrived in Las Vegas at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, McMahill said.

About an hour later, after driving up and down Las Vegas Boulevard, the truck arrived at the Trump Hotel and detonated, according to authorities.

Surveillance footage showed the driver driving past the Trump Hotel about an hour before the explosion. According to a police officer involved in the investigation, the driver was then seen backing up and stopping in front of the hotel shortly before the car exploded.

A CCTV video shown by police captured the moment the truck exploded. In social media footage, the vehicle can be seen engulfed in smoke while water is poured over it.

During a news conference, police shared footage showing scorched gasoline containers and firework mortars found in the rubble of the badly burned truck.

McMahill said the Cybertruck’s body design significantly reduced damage to the hotel service area because most of the blast was directed upward and the building’s front window remained intact during the explosion.

“The fact that it was a Cybertruck really limited the damage done to the interior of the valet, which took the brunt of the blast. Get through the truck and out,” he said. “You will see that the front glass doors of the Trump Hotel were not even broken by the explosion they were parked in front of.”

“I have to thank Elon Musk in particular,” McMahill added, noting that the Tesla Motors CEO gave authorities “a lot of additional information,” including sending videos directly from his charging stations to help them track the driver to help.

“We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and was unrelated to the vehicle itself,” Musk said in a post on X .

“All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” Musk added, referring to the automaker’s system that collects and transmits data about a vehicle’s performance and status in real time and monitors mileage and distance traveled, among other things can track.

Musk has emerged as a key player in Trump’s orbit as he transitions to a second term in the White House. The president-elect has tapped the tech tycoon, along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) aimed at cutting government spending.

The explosion came on the heels of a deadly attack in New Orleans in which a driver drove a pickup truck into a crowd celebrating New Year’s on Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning, killing 14 people. According to local and federal authorities, the driver had potentially improvised explosive devices and an ISIS flag in the truck he was driving.

Turo, which operates an online platform for car owners to lease their vehicles, reported that its service was used to rent vehicles involved in the tragic events in New Orleans and Las Vegas and that the company is cooperating with authorities.

“We do not believe that any of the tenants involved in the attacks in Las Vegas and New Orleans had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security risk,” a Turo spokesperson told CNN.

McMahill noted that it was merely a “coincidence” that the truck involved in the New Orleans attack was also rented from Turo, and that authorities are actively investigating the situation.

“We are absolutely investigating any connection to what happened in New Orleans, as well as other attacks that have occurred around the world,” McMahill said.

Update: An earlier version of this story included the attacker in the number of people killed in New Orleans. At least 14 people were killed. The attacker is also dead.

CNN’s Chelsea Bailey, Brynn Gingras, Lauren Mascarenhas, Paul P. Murphy and Maureen Chowdhury contributed to this report.