FBI seeks naturalized Afghan citizen in connection with NY, NJ explosions

Five homemade pipe bombs were discovered overnight in a backpack at a train station in Elizabeth a day after an explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan that injured at least 29 people.

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(JTA) — The FBI was searching for a New Jersey resident of Afghan descent in connection with an explosion in a New York City neighborhood and at a New Jersey train station.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, a naturalized Afghan citizen, is “armed and dangerous,” the FBI said early Monday morning.

A day after an explosion in the trendy Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan that injured at least 29 people, five homemade pipe bombs were discovered overnight Sunday in a backpack at a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey. One of the bombs exploded while being disarmed by a police bomb squad robot.

An apartment about a mile from the train station was raided early Monday morning by agents and members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. It is not clear if the apartment belongs to Rahami.

New Jersey Transit service was suspended early Monday between Newark Liberty Airport and Elizabeth, and New Jersey-bound Amtrak trains were being held at New York Penn Station, according to reports.

After calling the Chelsea explosion “intentional,” but with no proof of terrorist intent, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that the investigation into the blast is “definitely leading” toward terror.

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