The information emerged as the younger Rahami, 28, was being held on $5.2 million bail, charged with the attempted murder of police officers during the shootout that led to his capture Monday outside a bar in Linden, New Jersey.
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The official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Rahami was not believed to be on federal terror watch lists at the time of the blasts.
Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton said her rival’s anti-Muslim rhetoric gives “aid and comfort” to Islamic terrorists by helping them recruit fighters. “My experience is once the Federal Bureau of Investigation zeroes in on someone, they will get them”. NY police believed that Rahami is the man who appears in videos taken by security cameras on 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighbourhood of Lower Manhattan, where on Saturday a bomb exploded that injured nearly 30 people on 27th Street, and where another device was found that did not detonate. Investigators don’t know if he was directed by a terrorist group or inspired by one.
In a weird turn, officials are now admitting that the second pressure cooker bomb found in Saturday night’s attack in Manhattan’s Chelsea area was accidentally defused by thieves who happened upon it and stole the briefcase the bomb was hidden in. The law enforcement officials said at least one of Rahami’s relatives was in the vehicle, which appeared headed toward Kennedy Airport in NY after coming from New Jersey.
With Rahami’s arrest, officials said they have no indication there are more bombs or suspects to find, though they cautioned that they are still working to understand Rahami’s connections.
The reports of a possible blast come hours after a pipe bomb exploded in Seaside Park, New Jersey, shortly before thousands of runners participated in a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors. No one was injured.
One of five devices left inside a bag discovered in a trashcan at the local train station blew up Sunday evening as a bomb squad tried to disarm it.
The bomb robot was “cutting wires” on the device to disable it when it inadvertently went off, sparking a loud explosion. No serious injuries were reported in that explosion.
Was avoiding the term the mayor’s way of putting New Yorker’s minds at ease or was it an attempt not to jump to conclusions? When officers arrived, they asked him to show his hands and Rahami began shooting, he said. The bombing bears some uncomfortable similarities to the 2013 Boston Marathon attack – though, thankfully, the Manhattan bombs did not kill anyone.
New York’s governor has also said the Manhattan bombing could be an act of terrorism with a foreign connection.
At an earlier press conference at a NY hotel Monday, Obama acknowledged the annual summit proceedings “already create an additional workload for NY”. The driver had just picked up three passengers and was driving when the explosion occurred, shattering the car’s windows and leaving gaping holes in the rear passenger-side door. It was not clear if there was any connection between those explosives and the earlier attacks.
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The blast happened in front of a residence for the blind. “This is a bomb”.
