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| FBI launches terrorism investigation after explosives lit outside NYC mayor's home(Image: Getty Images) |
Following a Saturday attempt to use two homemade explosives near the official residence of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, officials in New York and the FBI have launched an investigation into "an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism." The devices - which were both ignited, and at least one of which was thrown - "could have caused serious injury or death", New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
The incident occurred after a group of anti-Islam protesters gathered outside Mamdani's mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion, and clashed with a larger group of counter-protesters.
Two men who appeared agitated by the anti-Islam protesters have been arrested in connection with the devices.
Read More: A New York City snowball fight gone wrong leaves Mayor Mamdani at odds with police
The suspects were identified as 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, both from Pennsylvania.
"We were fortunate that the devices used this weekend did not cause the kind of harm that they were certainly capable of causing," Tisch said during a news conference on Monday. "But luck is never a strategy. Devices like these have the potential to cause devastating harm."
Tisch said the New York City Police Department (NYPD) remained vigilant in its counter-terrorism investigations and thanked two of the officers who stepped forward "without hesitation and without regard for their own safety", after the devices were lit.
Tisch said an analysis of one of the devices showed it was made of triacetone triperoxide - "a dangerous and highly volatile homemade explosive".
Tisch also said that officers had found a car in the city's Upper East Side that was tied to the two suspects. The NYPD used a robot that found "another possible suspicious device and materials inside the car consistent with the first two explosive devices".
Tisch told reporters over the weekend in an earlier update that Jake Lang, a far-right influencer and pardoned 6 January rioter, was the one who organized the protest. The counterprotest, which had over 100 participants, outnumbered that group. As the two groups clashed, video from the scene confirmed by the BBC's media partner, CBS News, showed Balat throwing the first "ignited device", which extinguished itself after striking a barrier.
Balat then retrieved a second device from Kayumi, lit it, and started running before later dropping it, Tisch said. In the updates provided on Monday, Mamdani said both devices had been thrown.
Tisch also wrote on X that a preliminary analysis of one of the devices revealed it to be "an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death." Apparently, the devices were made of glass bottles filled with explosives and surrounded by nuts and bolts, or fragmentation, with a firework-like fuse. The FBI wrote on X, "The FBI and NYPD confirmed the suspicious items to be improvised explosive devices (IEDs)." "Also, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) will be conducting interviews, reviewing videos, collecting evidence, and pursuing all leads," the statement reads. Police also arrested Ian McGuiness, 21, for allegedly using pepper spray on counter-protesters. Disorderly conduct and obstruction were the charges leveled against him and three others. In a statement on Sunday, Mamdani called the anti-Islam protest "rooted in bigotry and racism" but said what followed was "even more disturbing".
At a protest, violence is never acceptable. The mayor stated, "The attempt to use an explosive device and cause harm to others is not only illegal but also repugnant and antithetical to who we are."
Source: BBC
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