President Barack Obama praised law enforcement in New York and New Jersey on Monday morning following a bombing in Manhattan and the discovery of multiple explosive devices in the New York City area.
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While all 29 people who were injured in the NY bombing have been released from medical care, three of those hurt in Minnesota remain in hospital, officials said.
The investigation into the weekend attacks in the USA is moving fast.
He was speaking as police took a suspect into custody in connection with last Saturday night’s explosion in the Chelsea neighbourhood in New York City.
Later that day, a man disguised as a security guard stabbed eight people in a shopping centre in St Cloud, Minnesota before being shot and killed by an off-duty police officer.
The president, arriving in NY for the meeting of the United Nations General assembly this week, praised the cooperation between federal and local law enforcement agencies in investigating the incidents.
Homeland security officials told the Reuters news agency that the explosive devices in NY and New Jersey were linked.
USA media reported that the NY bomb was planted in a dumpster, but police say they are still not “100 percent” certain where the blast originated with major construction work taking place close by. The attacker is believed to be of Somali-American origin and is reported to have asked victims if they were Muslim during the attack. At least one officer endured non-life threatening injuries.
As to whether Clinton was concerned that these attacks could skew the election in Trump’s favor, Clinton quoted former CIA Director Michael Hayden by saying, “Trump is being used as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorists”, and, “We’re not going to go after an entire religion and give ISIS exactly what it’s wanting to enhance their position”.
What we know: An explosion in a garbage can near a Marine Corps charity run in New Jersey on Saturday is being investigated as a possible terrorist act.
Speaking from NY where he is attending the UN General Assembly, Mr Obama said he had been closely monitoring developments following the weekend bombing in Manhattan and pipe bomb explosion in New Jersey.
“We know it’s a very serious incident, but we have a lot more work to do to be able to say what kind of motivation was behind this”, Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters. A similar, unexploded device, was found a few blocks away later that night. Four of the bombs were safely removed, but one exploded as it was being investigated by a bomb disposal robot.
The white garbage bag appears to contain the unexploded pressure cooker, which was examined at the Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory in Virginia.
“If you look at a number of these incidents, you can call them whatever you want – they are terrorism, though”, New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie, a key member of the Trump campaign, told CNN.
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There’s also no indication that the latest incident in Elizabeth is connected to the blasts in NY and New Jersey over the weekend.
