New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo survey the site of an explosion which occurred Saturday night in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York, U.S., September 18, 2016. REUTERS/Rashid Umar Abbasi
U.S. investigators
on Sunday were studying possible links between a pair of bombs detonated in New
York City and New Jersey over the weekend, although no evidence had yet emerged
tying the devices to known extremist groups.
The country was
shaken by a trio of attacks over the weekend including a Saturday night bombing
that injured 29 in Manhattan and a stabbing attack at a Minnesota shopping mall
that wounded nine.
While officials
described all three as deliberate, criminal acts and were investigating them as
potential "acts of terrorism," they stopped short of characterizing
the motivation behind any of them until more evidence is uncovered.
Police did not
immediately identify the Minnesota attacker, citing an ongoing investigation,
although some local media reports gave his name and said he was an African-born
junior college student. Reuters could not immediately confirm his identity.
There were no
immediate connections established between the Minnesota attack and the bombings
in New York and New Jersey, which came days before the United Nations General
Assembly opens on Tuesday. Some 135 heads of state or government are expected
to attend the event, and city officials said they had bolstered an already
heavy security force with 1,000 more uniformed police officers and National
Guard members.
'CRUDE' DEVICES
Federal Bureau of
Investigation experts were examining remnants of the two devices that went off
in Chelsea and Seaside Park, New Jersey, some 80 miles (130 km) south of New
York City, as well as the undetonated pressure-cooker bomb, the same sort of
improvised explosive device that killed three people and wounded more than 260
in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
"The crudity of
the devices in all three cases certainly doesn't point to any group that's been
developing (improvised explosive devices) for years," said a U.S. official
involved in the investigation who requested anonymity to discuss the inquiry.
The official added
that the crude nature of the devices and the apparent low level of planning had
some investigators concerned that the blasts were just a test of New York's
security.
"That's what
worries us: Was this some kind of test run, not just of the devices, but also
of the surveillance in New York and the response?" the official said.
The United States
has experienced a series of deadly attacks over the past year by gunmen
inspired by Islamic State, which has been fighting a long civil war in Syria. A
man who claimed allegiance to the group fatally shot 50 people at an Orlando,
Florida, nightclub in June, six months after a married couple massacred 14 in
San Bernardino, California.
A deafening roar and
powerful shock rocked Manhattan's popular Chelsea neighborhood late on Saturday
after a pressure-cooker bomb packed with shrapnel exploded. A similar,
unexploded device, was found a few blocks away later that night.
No international
militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the New York blast or a
pipe bomb that went off earlier along the route of a Saturday road race in
suburban New Jersey. But New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the act of blowing
up a bomb in a crowded area of Manhattan "is obviously an act of
terrorism."
No suspects were
immediately identified in the New York and New Jersey attacks.
But CNN reported on
Sunday night that police had reviewed surveillance video showing a man, who was
not identified, leaving both devices on Saturday.
Investigators at the
FBI's lab in Quantico, Virginia, were set to look to see if the three devices
in the New York area had a common design, although a U.S. official familiar
with the inquiry said that would not be proof in itself the attacks were
linked.
"Almost anybody
could have fabricated these bombs and used cellphones as timed
detonators," said the official. "There are instructions all over the
internet, and the crudity, positioning, and relative ineffectiveness of these
does not suggest that a more sophisticated group played any role in this."
The bombs used in
the Boston Marathon bombing were built using instructions that the pair of
brothers behind the attack found in al Qaeda's "Inspire" online
magazine.
The FBI considers
the Minnesota episode a "potential act of terrorism," Richard
Thornton, FBI special agent in charge of the agency's Minneapolis division,
told a news conference on Sunday.
Amaq, the news
agency affiliated with Islamic State, issued a statement on Sunday calling the
attacker "a soldier of the Islamic State."
Reuters was not
immediately able to verify the Amaq assertion.
The Islamic State
militant group quickly claimed responsibility for the Minnesota attack by a man
who made references to Allah and asked at least one person if he or she was
Muslim before he assaulted the individual. An off-duty police officer fatally
shot the assailant.
Reuters
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