Bomb suspect vowed ‘death to your oppression,’ feds say

The men are considered witnesses and are not in danger of being arrested, officials said Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors in NY and New Jersey charged Ahmad Khan Rahami with several crimes, including use of a weapon of mass destruction. Federal officials said Thursday the weapon was bought in Virginia.

Rahami has been charged with Saturday’s bombing in the Chelsea section of Manhattan that left 31 people injured.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, a US citizen of Afghan descent has been charged in the bombing.

The wife of the suspect behind the NY and New Jersey bombings has flown back to the U.S. from the United Arab Emirates, according to reports. He could be sentenced to life in prison. He was listed in critical but stable condition on Tuesday, and police had not yet been able to interview him in depth, New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said.

Investigators allege Rahami purchased bomb-making components on eBay – including ball bearings, citric acid and electronic igniters – before the attacks over the weekend. One of the bombs injured 29 people. He said if the men weren’t plugged into news coverage, it was possible they still didn’t know they had taken the bag that held the bomb.

United States authorities investigated whether Rahami, the naturalised American citizen captured on Monday, had accomplices in the bombings or if he was radicalised during trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Rahami’s first bomb detonated, but didn’t cause any damage other than blowing a hole through a trash can.

Rahami was wounded in a shootout with police and is in a hospital in New Jersey.

Prosecutors said surveillance video shows Rahami rolling a suitcase down the street, then abandoning it on the sidewalk where that second device was found. ‘But they check nearly two months, they say, ‘He’s O.K., he’s clean, he’s not a terrorist.’ I say O.K’.

“Mr. Rahami was arrested more than 48 hours ago”.

The criminal complaint said authorities found a handwritten journal on Rahami that contained references to “brother Osama Bin Laden” and Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaida propagandist who was killed in a 2011 drone strike. Photo: ABC NewsRahami, a 28-year-old Afghan-born, was shot in the leg after a shootout with police. He wrote “Death to your oppression”.

The charges come after the Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted that they had investigated Rahami for terrorism in 2014 following a complaint from his father, but found no link despite alleged acts of violence.

He also said that contrary to reports in USA media, Rahami’s wife, Asia Bibi Rahami, is not a citizen of Pakistan.