New York bomb suspect charged, arrests in Pakistan

NEW YORK/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors charged a Pakistani-American on Tuesday with attempting to blow up a car bomb in New York's busy Times Square while officials in Pakistan arrested several of his relatives.

Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in the Kashmir region of Pakistan, admitted to receiving bomb-making training in his country, according to charges filed by prosecutors.

"After the arrest Shahzad admitted that he had attempted to detonate a bomb in Times Square. He also admitted that he had recently received bomb-making training in Waziristan, Pakistan," the charges said.

He also told 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 about to depart for Dubai. Hours later, several relatives and a friend were arrested in Pakistan in connection with the failed bombing, a security official in Karachi said.

U.S. authorities are investigating whether Emirates airline made a mistake in letting Shahzad on its aircraft.

"That's part of the investigation that we're looking at," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a news briefing.

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

"Which group he may have belonged to and how he became radicalized, we don't know yet," said the source.

An intelligence official in Pakistan said Shahzad received militant training in northwest Pakistan near the garrison town of Kohat. The area around Kohat is a stronghold of Tariq Afridi, the main Pakistani Taliban commander in the region.

But the homemade bomb he is accused of trying to detonate in Times Square was a crude collection of gasoline, propane gas, fireworks, fertilizer and alarm clocks.

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.

CLAIMS HE ACTED ALONE

Shahzad was due to appear in federal court later on Tuesday or Wednesday to face the terrorism-related charges, which carry a life sentence if he is convicted. 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.

"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.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Shahzad has provided investigators with useful information but declined to discuss specifics at a news conference in Washington.

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said it was the 11th thwarted attack on New York City since September 11, 2001.

An Afghan immigrant who admitted to receiving al Qaeda training in Pakistan, Najibullah Zazi, pleaded guilty to plotting a suicide bombing campaign on Manhattan's subway system last September.

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

The Taliban in Pakistan claimed responsibility for the plot though several officials voiced scepticism about the claim.

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.

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

Shahzad worked for about three years as a junior financial analyst in the Norwalk, Connecticut, office of the Affinion Group, a marketing and consulting business, the company said on Tuesday. Shahzad left the company in June 2009.

Shahzad is suspected of buying a 1993 Nissan sport utility vehicle used to carry the homemade bomb 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.

(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York; Jeremy Pelofsky and Jim Vicini in Washington; and William Maclean in London; Editing by Anthony Boadle)

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