At WSJ, "Afghan Immigrant Sought in New York Bombing":
Authorities on Monday named the man they want in connection with a bomb that exploded in Manhattan over the weekend—saying the 28-year-old Elizabeth, N.J., man may be “armed and dangerous’’ after a series of bombs were placed around the New York City area.Keep reading.
Meanwhile Monday morning at an Elizabeth train station, an explosive device recovered by authorities near a trash can detonated as investigators were attempting to disarm it with a robot, authorities said.
The target of the manhunt was identified as Ahmad Khan Rahami, a U.S. citizen who was born in Afghanistan. Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the man’s northern New Jersey home on Monday, officials said, one of several searches being conducted in the area as the terrorism investigation intensified.
Officials suspect Mr. Rahami is responsible for a bomb that detonated Saturday evening in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, injuring 29 people. A follow-up search of the neighborhood by police revealed a similar, unexploded homemade bomb left on the street. Authorities think whoever placed those bombs may also be responsible for a pipe bomb that exploded on the street of the New Jersey shore town of Seaside Park earlier that day, according to law-enforcement officials. No one was injured in the earlier explosion.
The ‘’Wanted” poster issued by the FBI doesn't explicitly call Mr. Rahami a suspect, but several law-enforcement officials say he is the person they believe is behind the bomb plot. The officials are working to determine if any other individuals may have been involved.
Counterterrorism officials are trying to determine if Mr. Rahami may have been part of a terror cell, officials added.
Authorities released a photo of the man and described him as 5-feet-6 and weighing about 200 pounds. Mr. Rahami has brown hair, brown eyes and brown facial hair, the FBI said.
The race to solve the bombing accelerated Sunday evening, when New York police and the FBI stopped a vehicle near the Verrazano Bridge. Five people in the vehicle were questioned in connection with the bomb probe but were not charged. Law-enforcement officials described those people as relatives and friends of Mr. Rahami.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that vehicle stop “was helpful’’ to investigators in zeroing in on Mr. Rahami. The mayor said the FBI was looking “more closely’’ at the connections between a bomb that detonated in Manhattan Saturday night, another bomb that was found four blocks away, and the Seaside Park pipe bomb.
On Sunday night, authorities were alerted to a suspicious device found outside the Elizabeth, N.J. train station. When a robot was sent to probe the package, one of the bombs inside detonated, officials said.
FBI officials said the package contained multiple homemade bombs. “In the course of rendering one of the devices safe, it detonated,’’ the FBI said in a statement. No one was injured by the blast.
In a fresh sign of the urgency officials feel in trying to stop additional bomb attacks, alerts were sent to New Yorkers’ cell phones urging them to contact authorities if they see Mr. Rahami or have any information about him.
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