New York, March 9
New York narrowly escaped an Islamic State-linked terrorist attack when a bomb failed to explode, according to officials.
That, and another home-made bomb, found during the Saturday attack, were made with an explosive called TATP, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Monday.
The chemical, dubbed "Mother of Satan" because of its power and ease of making, was also found in the explosives set off near the Red Fort in New Delhi last year, and in other terrorist attacks around the world.
The attack occurred while New York and the US were on high-alert because of the Iran war.
Two alleged terrorists, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Nikk Khayumi, were arrested by the police, who rushed Balat as he hurled the bomb, which emitted smoke from a lit fuse that failed to fully ignite the device.
The two alleged terrorists came from Pennsylvania to carry out the attack.
Federal prosecutors were expected to file charges against them later on Monday.
Police recovered the two explosives at the protest as they wrestled Balat to the ground after he jumped over a barricade and rushed towards the "anti-Islamisation" protest.
On Sunday, a police robot removed a third device from a car parked nearby.
The attack took place when a right-wing group was holding a "Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City" protest near the Mayor's official residence, and another group converged there to hold a counterprotest.
Initially some Democratic Party officials tried unsuccessfully to blame the anti-Islamisation group led by a right-wing agitator Jack Lang for the bomb attack.
Tisch said the attack is under investigation by both the city and federal law enforcement as "ISIS-inspired terrorism".
If the explosives had gone off, they could have created serious damage as they "were meant to injure, maim, or worse", Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Monday at the news conference with Tisch.
Mamdani's ire was directed more at the anti-Islamisation protesters, on whom he appeared to place the major blame.
"This was a vile protest rooted in white supremacy," he said, but added, "While I found this protest appalling, I will not waver in my belief that it should be allowed to happen."
In an earlier statement, the New York Mayor named Lang and condemned the protest he led as "rooted in bigotry and racism", calling it "an affront to our city's values and the unity that defines who we are".
But Mamdani did not name the two persons arrested, while he said, "What followed was even more disturbing."
"The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are," the New York Mayor added.
Lang, a professional extreme right-wing agitator was convicted in the 2021 attack by supporters of President Donald Trump on the Capitol when Congress was preparing to ratify former President Joe Biden's election.
Trump pardoned Jack Lang after his 2024 re-election.
Soon after the attack, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat, blamed the "incendiary device" on "White Christian Nationalists" instead of the ISIS-linked attackers.
The attempt at deflection was echoed by others.
As Mamdani was holding his news conference, Lang shouted from nearby, "It was not a far-right agitator who threw the bomb."
The last attempted bomb attack in the city happened in 2017 when a Bangladeshi immigrant, Akayed Ullah, set off bomb in the subway system, although only he was injured. He was sentenced to life in prison.
