THE FBI is looking for two men who took a suitcase holding a second bomb in NY – and reportedly disabled it by accident by pulling out a wire.
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Bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami is now facing federal as well as state charges in connection with bombings in NY and New Jersey and a shootout with police.
But at around the same time another explosive device detonated on West 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighbourhood, injuring 31 people.
According to the F.B.I., the pair saw a piece of luggage on the sidewalk, removed an improvised explosive device from the luggage, and then left leaving the device behind but taking the luggage.
“Inshallah (God willing), the sounds of bombs will be heard in the streets”, Rahami, who came to the United States at age 7, wrote in a journal he was carrying when arrested.
An explosive device went off in a New Jersey train station as the NY bomb squad was attempting to disarm it with a robot.
USA authorities investigated on Wednesday whether anyone helped an Afghan-born American citizen charged with carrying out bombings in ny and New Jersey, while the city’s top federal public defender asked for access to the man. He remains hospitalized. Investigators say Rahami planted two bombs in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood Saturday night.
Two years ago, Ahmad Kahn Rahami’s father, Mohammad, said he called the Federal Bureau of Investigation to report his son was a terrorist-an accusation the father would later recant.
Rahami was arrested on Monday in Linden, New Jersey, after a gun battle with police. The messages include praise of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011, and “Brother Osama Bin Laden”, the former head of al-Qaida who was killed by USA forces in Pakistan in 2011.
In video recovered from West 27th Street, Rahami no longer has the backpack slung behind his shoulder, but he is still pulling the wheelie bag, which the duo found at about 8:30 p.m. However it’s unclear if she came to the U.S. at that time. Rahami was listed in critical but stable condition, and police had not yet been able to interview him in depth, New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill said. Law enforcement officials said she left the U.S.to return a few days before the bombings, and has been detained in the UAE.
Ultimately, federal investigators believed it was a domestic dispute, several federal officials told CNN.
The FBI said Tuesday it assessed Rahami’s activities in 2014 after his father told agents he was concerned about his son’s possible involvement with extremists.
Muhammad Rahami later backed away from his accusations, and the police dropped the investigation.
Investigators don’t believe the two men who handled the luggage are part of Rahami’s plot, but still want to question them.
AP spokesman Paul Colford said the news cooperative told law enforcement officials about Rahami’s work at the Cranbury facility.
Rep. Tom MacArthur said that he was briefed by the FBI’s head of national security, Michael Steinbach, on Tuesday.
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Complaints filed in federal court in Manhattan and New Jersey contain details from the investigation and Rahami’s handwritten journal, which was damaged from a shootout with police.
