New York police focus on man seen near Times Square car bomb

Source: TimesonlinePolice investigating the failed car bomb attack on Times Square in New York are focussing their attention on surveillance footage of a white man seen shedding his shirt near the SUV where the bomb was found.




The unidientified man, who appears to be in his 40s, is seen on the footage looking furtively over his shoulder and removing a dark shirt, revealing a red one underneath. The man then stuffs the dark shirt into a bag, officials said.



Investigators are also examining eight bags of a non-explosive grade of fertiliser which was found in a metal rifle cabinet amongst the other materials in the Nissan Pathfinder, including gasoline, propane, firecracks and alarm clocks.



Raymond Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, said the fertiliser alone would not have exploded but could have set the other materials alight. The bomb, he said, “would have caused casualties, a significant fireball.”


Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said it if had exploded; “It would have been, in all likelihood, a good possibility of people being killed, windows shattered, but not resulting in a building collapse.”



No motive has yet been determined for the attack. Police have dismissed claims from the militant Pakistan group Tehreek-e-Taleban that it was responsible for the attempt. The al-Qaeda linked group has previously claimed the credit for other attacks which it was not involved in.



More credence, however, may be given to a video of the group's former commander Hakimullah Mehsud, believed to have been killed in a US drone attack in January, in which he threatens attacks on major American cities, according to the intelligence organisation SITE.



In the nine minute video, posted on the Internet today but allegedly made on April 4, Mehsud, who was once Pakistan's most feared militant commander, makes no specific mention of an attempt on New York but threatens strikes on the United States within a month for the killing of militant leaders.



"The time is very near when our fidaeen [soldiers] will attack the American states in the major cities," says Mehsud, who is flanked by two armed and masked men.



The attacks were in retaliaton for having “martyred many of our great muslim leaders and many respected brothers from Al-Qaeda," he adds, naming Baitullah Mehsud, his predecessor as the Taleban's leading commander in Pakistan who was killed in a US drone strike last August.



US authorities said they were treating the failed bombing , described as a “one-off” by Janet Nappolitano, the Home Security Secretary, as a potential terrorist attack, but said there was no evidence of a continued threat to New York.



Police released a photograph of the dark-colored SUV as it crossed an intersection at 6:28 p.m. Saturday. Two street vendors pointed the SUV out to a police officer about two minutes later after they noticed smoke coming from the Pathfinder, which had been parked haphazardly with its engine running and its hazard lights flashing.



Times Square was evacuated for ten hours as police defused the bomb and searched nearby streets for other possible explosives.



The license plate found on the vehicle did not belong to the SUV; police said it came from a car found in a repair shop in Connecticut.

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