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US launches manhunt for Muslim suspect, admits bombings were acts of terror

US officials have admitted that the bombing in New York and the unexploded bombs in New Jersey were acts of terrorism. They are now searching for Ahmad Khan Rahami, a prime suspect. 

Authorities now believe that the Saturday night blast in the heart of Chelsea, a Manhattan neighborhood, which left 29 people injured was an act of Islamic terrorism, while New York’s governor now says it looks like the bombing could be an act of terrorism with a foreign connection, retracting a previous statement on the incident.

Security forces have launched a manhunt for Ahmad Khan Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized American.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he could be armed and dangerous. “We need to get this guy in right away,” de Blasio said on CNN. “My experience is when the FBI zeroes in on someone, they will get them.”

On Sunday night, FBI agents in Brooklyn stopped five suspects riding in “a vehicle of interest” in the investigation of the Manhattan explosion.

Governor Andrew Cuomo had said Sunday that there was no evidence to suggest that the bombing was related to international terrorism, but he appeared to walk that back Monday. “Today’s information suggests it may be foreign related, but we’ll see where it goes,” he said.

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He revealed that the bombs found over the weekend have similarities, suggesting “there might have been a common linkage.” He said the investigation is ongoing, and he “wouldn’t be surprised if it zeroes in on a particular individual, today even,” and he “wouldn’t be surprised if we found a foreign connection to the act.”

Authorities were still working to determine whether there is a connection between multiple explosive devices found over the weekend in two states: the Manhattan explosion, an unexploded pressure cooker device blocks away, a pipe bomb blast at a Jersey shore town and five explosive devices at a New Jersey train station.

Authorities also believe there may be a terror cell at work in those two states, law enforcement officials told CNN Monday.

Surveillance videos showed the same man near the site of the explosion in Chelsea and where a pressure-cooker device was found four blocks away, several local and federal law enforcement sources told CNN.

The series of attacks come as New York hosts world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly this week.

By: World Israel News Staff
AP contributed to this report.