Investigators are trying to determine if the prime suspect in a series of bomb attacks in New York and New Jersey over the weekend had been radicalized during trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and whether his attack was directed by ISIS or another terrorist group, CBS reported Tuesday.
Ahmad Khan Rahami had visited Afghanistan, the country from which his family immigrated, at least three times, most recently in 2014, according to law enforcement. Investigators are trying to determine whether the trips were to visit family or for some other purpose. Two law enforcement sources told CBS that Rahami also traveled to Pakistan on at least one of those trips.
Though he wasn’t on any watch list, Rahami was interviewed Customs and Border Patrol following his 2014 trip to Afghanistan, which is standard procedure for Americans who visit places like Afghanistan.
An intelligence source told CBS that Rahami has a wife living abroad. Rep. Albio Sires (D – N.J.) said that Rahami had contacted his office in 2014 seeking a new passport for his wife, whose Pakistani passport had expired. The congressman’s office was able to secure the passport for her, but couldn’t say if she traveled to the United States. Sires contacted the FBI when he learned that Rahami was wanted for questioning.
Investigators are trying to establish if Rahami had ties with ISIS or other terror organizations. He is reported to be refusing to cooperate. The sophistication of the devices allegedly designed and deployed by Rahami made one investigator conclude that he had received training. “The guy is a pretty good bombmaker. And you don’t get that good on the internet,” a law enforcement official told The New York Times.
The first bomb exploded in Seaside Park, New Jersey on Saturday at 9:30 AM along the path of a Marine Corps run. Three pipe bombs had been placed in a garbage can along the route of the run, but only one detonated, destroying the receptacle. No one was injured.
Later that night, a bomb placed underneath a dumpster exploded at 23rd Street and 6th Avenue in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, injuring 29 people. A man believed to be Rahami was seen on surveillance video nearby around that time with a knapsack, possibly carrying one homemade bomb, and a rolling luggage bag, believed to contain a second bomb.
Following the explosion, police received a 911 call that led them to a second location four blocks north. There they found the second bomb and were able to disarm it (it may have been inadvertently disabled by two men who found the bomb inside the luggage, but took the luggage and left the bomb there). The second device yielded a fingerprint that police were able to match to Rahami’s through an arrest record
There were other similarities between the three bombs, including the use of older model flip phones as timers, Christmas lights as initiators, an explosive compound called HMTD as the detonator, and a second compound similar to the commercial explosive Tannerite for the main charges.
Five bombs were discovered in the train station in Rahami’s hometown of Elizabeth on Tuesday, when a suspicious package was reported there. A robot sapper accidentally set one off while trying to disarm it but no one was injured.
Authorities used New York City’s emergency notification system, usually reserved for floods and other weather emergencies, to inform millions of local residents to be on the lookout for Rahami. About 10:30 Monday morning, the owner of a liquor store in Linden, a town next to Elizabeth, noticed a man sleeping in the doorway of his business. When a police officer woke up the man, he noticed that he had a beard similar to the one on the man in the wanted posters. He ordered the man to show his hands. Instead the man drew his gun and shot the officer, then started running and firing randomly at passing vehicles. Other police officers chased Rahami and eventually shot him five times, injuring him in the leg, allowing his capture.
CBS reported that a local judge set bail for Rahami at $5.2 million.
[Photo: CNN / YouTube ]