US authorities identify suspect in New York bombing

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) – U.S. authorities identified on Monday 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami for his suspected involvement in the bombing of a New York City neighborhood over the weekend which injured nearly 30 people.

Rahami, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, is a naturalized U.S. citizen, according to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“We definitely have now someone that we want to get in immediately for questioning,” de Blasio told CNN.

In a bulletin, the FBI said Rahami should be treated as armed and dangerous.

De Blasio could not say whether Rahami was part of a larger extremist cell.

Authorities are still trying to determine whether there is a connection to the Chelsea blast, a separate pressure-cooker type undetonated explosive found nearby and a pipe-bomb explosion near a New Jersey train station.

The Chelsea blast injured 29 people, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier said that it did not appear to be linked to international terrorism.

The FBI said it conducted a traffic stop on a “vehicle of interest” on Sunday, but no one was charged with a crime.

Pressure-cooker type bombs were also used in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings which claimed three lives and injured over 250 victims.

The perpetrators of that attack, brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, had no direct ties to international terror groups but instead used information posted online by the organizations to help carry out their attacks.

That bombing marked a new era of what authorities call "lone-wolf"-type attacks.

New York police are urging anyone with information on the suspect to call 1800CALLFBI.