US checks border stop for link to New York blast
Saturday, 8 March 2008
WASHINGTON, Mar 07 (Reuters): US authorities are checking whether several people stopped at the Canadian border are linked to an explosion that damaged a military recruiting station in New York, police said on Friday.
"Some pictures of Times Square, including the recruiting station, were found," New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told CNN. "So federal officials are going back to take another look and talk to Canadian officials about that stop."
The pre-dawn blast Thursday, caused by a crude bomb made from low-grade explosives, damaged the recruiting station but caused no injuries. That station, like others, has been the target of protests against the US-led war in Iraq.
Times Square -- known as the "Crossroads of the World" for its shops, restaurants, hotels, theaters and office towers -- was largely deserted when the bomb went off at about 3:45 a.m. EST.
Still, the blast triggered a Pentagon alert for other recruiting stations across the country.
New Yorkers have been on alert since al Qaeda militants slammed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, killing more than 2,700 people. The towers were also targeted in 1993 by a truck bomb that killed six people.
Kelly confirmed at least three people were stopped at the Canadian border but he dismissed a possible link between the bombing and a letter sent to some Democratic U.S. congressional offices that referred to the recruiting station.
"Some pictures of Times Square, including the recruiting station, were found," New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told CNN. "So federal officials are going back to take another look and talk to Canadian officials about that stop."
The pre-dawn blast Thursday, caused by a crude bomb made from low-grade explosives, damaged the recruiting station but caused no injuries. That station, like others, has been the target of protests against the US-led war in Iraq.
Times Square -- known as the "Crossroads of the World" for its shops, restaurants, hotels, theaters and office towers -- was largely deserted when the bomb went off at about 3:45 a.m. EST.
Still, the blast triggered a Pentagon alert for other recruiting stations across the country.
New Yorkers have been on alert since al Qaeda militants slammed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, killing more than 2,700 people. The towers were also targeted in 1993 by a truck bomb that killed six people.
Kelly confirmed at least three people were stopped at the Canadian border but he dismissed a possible link between the bombing and a letter sent to some Democratic U.S. congressional offices that referred to the recruiting station.