NYPD: No Evidence Of Taliban Link To SUV Bomb

By TOM HAYS and DEEPTI HAJELA Associated Press Writers

NEW YORK (AP) – There was no evidence of a Taliban link to a failed bomb found in a smoking SUV parked in Times Square, and police were on their way to Pennsylvania to talk to a man who said he may have recorded a bombing suspect in a nearby alley, the police commissioner said Sunday.

The video apparently shows a white man in his 40s taking off his shirt in the alley and putting it in a bag, Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

Police found the SUV parked on one of the prime blocks for Broadway shows such as “The Lion King” after being alerted by two street vendors on Saturday night. Thousands of tourists were cleared from the streets for 10 hours, and the bomb was dismantled. No one was injured.

The SUV contained three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components, police said. Timers were connected to a 16-ounce can filled with fireworks that were apparently intended to set the gas cans afire, then ignite the three barbecue-grill-sized propane tanks.

Kelly said it was “the intent of whoever did this to cause mayhem, create casualties.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the explosive device “amateurish” but potentially deadly, noting: “We are very lucky.”

Police also found eight bags of an unknown substance in a gun locker that was in the smoking SUV, Kelly said. The substance “looks and feels” like fertilizer, he said, but tests were pending.

A group that monitors militant websites had said the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)