Pakistan arrests relatives of NY bomb suspect

NEW YORK/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan on Tuesday arrested several relatives of the Pakistani-American held in New York on suspicion of driving a bomb-laden car into Times Square, security sources said.

Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, told U.S. authorities he acted alone in Saturday's failed bombing but sceptical investigators are looking into his recent trip to Pakistan, a U.S. law enforcement source said.

Shahzad, 30, was arrested late on Monday night after he was taken off an Emirates airline plane that was just about to take off for Dubai. Hours later, several relatives and a friend were arrested in Pakistan.

"We have picked up a few family members" related to Shahzad, a security official in Karachi said. A friend of Shahzad was also detained.

Shahzad is from the disputed Kashmiri region but it is not known if he was affiliated with any militant group, a source familiar with the investigation said on Tuesday. The source asked not to be named because the issue is sensitive.

Shahzad was due to appear in federal court later on Tuesday to face charges of "driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1," officials said. Had the bomb detonated, many people could have died, experts said.

"He's admitted to buying the truck, putting the devices together, putting them in the truck, leaving the truck there and leaving the scene," the law enforcement source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"He's claimed to have acted alone. He did admit to all the charges, so to speak," said the source who added that investigators were still looking into his activities during a recent trip to Pakistan.

President Barack Obama said the investigation would seek to determine if the suspect in custody had any connection with foreign extremist groups.

If links were found between the failed bombing and Pakistan's Taliban, which claimed responsibility for it, Pakistan could come under renewed U.S. pressure to open risky new fronts against Islamic militants.

Although markets shrugged off the New York car bomb attempt as a one-off situation, tensions are high among investors. News that police in London closed a subway station to investigate reports of a suspect package pushed U.S. stock index futures to session lows before the market opened on Tuesday.

Pakistan vowed to help the U.S. investigation.

Shahzad and two others were arrested on board the plane after it had pulled away from the gate and was recalled, but the other two were cleared and allowed to travel, the Emirates airline said.

"Clearly the guy was on the plane and shouldn't have been and we got very lucky," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference.

Shahzad, who became a U.S. citizen last year, recently visited Pakistan for about five months, returning to the United States in February, the source said.

"Based on our collective experience it's hard to really believe that this is something someone would do on their own. It seems hard to pull off alone. There's a lot we don't know yet," the source said.

Shahzad is suspected of buying a 1993 Nissan sport utility vehicle used to carry the crude bomb, made of fuel and fireworks, into Times Square as the theatre and shopping area was packed with people on a warm Saturday evening.

Authorities searched Shahzad's home in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the FBI said on Tuesday. An FBI spokeswoman did not say what authorities had found.

The Taliban in Pakistan said on Sunday it planted the bomb to avenge the killing in April of al Qaeda's two top leaders in Iraq as well as U.S. interference in Muslim countries.

Some officials voiced scepticism about the claim.

Pakistan is an ally to the United States and other NATO countries fighting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan but is also seen as a training ground for Islamist militants.

Saturday's failed bombing was the second significant plot in nine months targeting New York City. An Afghan immigrant, Najibullah Zazi, has pleaded guilty to plotting a suicide bombing campaign on Manhattan's subway system last September.

U.S. authorities disrupted that plot before Zazi and his accused accomplices were able to carry it out. Another Afghan-born man has pleaded guilty for his role in the plot.

Zazi admitted to receiving al Qaeda training in Pakistan.

(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York; Jeremy Pelofsky, Jeff Mason, JoAnne Allen and Will Dunham in Washington; and William Maclean in London; Editing by Anthony Boadle)

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