Global General

US says Taliban behind NY blast

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-10 11:15

WASHINGTON - US Attorney General Eric Holder said on Sunday the United States has evidence that points to the Pakistani Taliban in connection with the New York bombing attempt.

Holder made the accusation in a Sunday morning interview with ABC's "This Week," saying the United States has "developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack."

A smoking sports utility vehicle with a suspicious package of gasoline fireworks and propane tanks was discovered last Saturday in New York's Times Square, but the bomb failed to explode.

Two days later, Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized US citizen from Pakistan was arrested in connection with the attempt. Holder said the Pakistani Taliban has helped Shahzad's attempt.

"We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it. And that he was working at their direction," said Holder.

Holder also said the US government was satisfied with the level of cooperation from Pakistan in the investigation, and there's nothing to suggest Pakistani authorities knows of Shahzad's attempt.

Shahzad has confessed to buying an SUV, rigging it with a homemade bomb and driving it Saturday into Times Square, where he tried to detonate it. He admitted to receiving bomb-making training in Pakistan's restive Waziristan.

Shahzad had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan. Pakistan's Dawn television said he had family links in the port city of Karachi.

Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik ordered probe into Shahzad's visit to South Waziristan tribal region and meetings with Pakistan based militants.