The FBI has identified Ahmad Khan Rahami as a suspect in the Sept. 17 bombing in New York City that injured 29 people. The New Jersey State Police are also seeking to question Rahami about bombings in Seaside Park and Elizabeth, New Jersey.
The FBI described Rahami as “a 28-year-old United States citizen of Afghan descent born on January 23, 1988, in Afghanistan” whose last known address is in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Rahami’s family operates a restaurant in Elizabeth, The New York Times reported.
Rahami “should be considered armed and dangerous,” the FBI noted.
Officials believe the bombings in New York City, Elizabeth, and Seaside Park may be linked, ABC News reported. Rahami is thought to be the man identified in videos take at the scene of the explosion in New York City as well as at a nearby site where an unexploded bomb was found.
The first bombing occurred on Saturday morning in Seaside Park, New Jersey near the planned route for a Semper Fi 5K charity run. No one was injured in the blast. A pipe bomb that was set up with a remote timer was used in the blast. No one was hurt in the explosion.
The second bombing, in Chelsea in New York City on Saturday evening, wounded 29 people. A pressure cooker bomb was found nearby but did not detonate.
The New Jersey State Police said that Rahami is wanted for questioning in the New York City and Seaside Park bombings, and released a montage of photos of the suspect, including one that appears to show him on surveillance video near the scene of the New York attack.
***WANTED FOR QUESTIONING**** RETWEET! https://t.co/B3IgarqY2D http://pic.twitter.com/QUjCFdtVc2
— NJSP – State Police (@NJSP) September 19, 2016
Earlier this morning, “a suspicious package with multiple improvised explosive devices,” thought to be pipe bombs, was discovered at the Elizabeth Train Station, the FBI’s office in Newark wrote on its Twitter feed. The bombs exploded as a police robot searched the bag.
There are similarities between the explosive devices, and the bombs in New York appear to have been designed based on manuals posted online by jihadist groups, including al Qaeda, according to the Associated Press.
US officials have not linked Rahami to a terrorist group, and, according to Reuters, he is list in the US counterterrorism database as a known suspect or person of interest.
Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and other jihadist groups have not claimed responsibility for the bombings in New York and New Jersey. The Islamic State did claim that one of its “soldiers” was responsible for stabbings at a mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota that wounded nine people.
from Long War Journal – The Long War Journal http://ift.tt/2d2pY1z
via Defense News
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