U.S. investigators were looking on Tuesday for clues to why an Afghanistan-born man might have planted bombs around the New York area over the weekend, including whether the suspect had accomplices or was radicalised overseas. Ahmad Khan Rahami (28) was arrested on Monday in Linden, New Jersey, after a gun battle with police.
Rahami was suspected of a spate of weekend bombings, including a blast in New York’s crowded Chelsea neighbourhood that wounded 29 people, and two in suburban New Jersey that caused no injuries. He lived with his family above the First American Fried Chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
The suspect’s foreign trips were coming under scrutiny, with U.S. media reporting that he had travelled to Pakistan and his native Afghanistan multiple times. Police were looking into whether he was radicalised during that time.
U.S. security sources have confirmed that Rahami underwent secondary screening after returning from foreign travel in recent years and passed on every occasion. Travellers coming from Afghanistan and Pakistan, which both have a strong Taliban presence, are routinely required to undergo secondary screening.
Wife left the U.S.Rahami’s wife left the United States a few days before the bombings, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing a law enforcement source.
Authorities did not offer any immediate information on the possible motives of Rahami, whom Union County prosecutors charged with five counts of attempted murder in the first degree and two second-degree weapons charges. He was in critical but stable condition as a result of his wounds, and police had not yet been able to interview him in depth, New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill said on Tuesday.
Rahami had not previously been identified as dangerous, but Elizabeth police knew of his family because of late-night noise and crowd complaints at its halal chicken restaurant.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of giving “aid and comfort” to Islamic terrorists, declaring that his anti-Muslim rhetoric helps the Islamic State (IS) and other militants recruit new fighters. As Trump supporters at a rally in Florida shouted “Hang him!” the Republican presidential candidate mocked the fact that Rahami would receive quality medical care and legal representation. — Reuters, AP
