NEW YORK, May 2 (UPI) -- A Pakistani Taliban group claims it was responsible for the attempted car bombing in New York City's Times Square, an Internet video alleged Sunday.
The terrorism monitoring organization SITE said on its Web site the video posted on YouTube attributed Saturday's failed bombing to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. The group said the video contains an audio message attributed to TTP official Qari Hussein Mehsud, known to be an organizer of the terrorist group's suicide bombing squad, played over anti-American images with English subtitles provided.
In the video, the Tehrik-e-Taliban said the attack was to avenge the recent deaths of Abu Umar al-Baghdadi and Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, killed in Iraq last month. The group also said the attempted attack was in "revenge for the global American interference and terrorism in Muslim countries."
New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Sunday police had received two claims of responsibility but neither had been verified.
Kelly also said surveillance video may show a suspect. Speaking with reporters at an afternoon news conference, Kelly said a white male in his 40s is seen in the video near the spot where a sport utility vehicle packed with explosive devices was found Saturday. The man is seen changing from a dark shirt to a red shirt within one block of where the car was parked.
Kelly said a visitor to New York may have captured the man's image on video as well.
He said investigators have determined a license plate on the vehicle was registered to a vehicle currently at an auto repair shop in Connecticut.
Investigators found canisters of propane, two 5-gallon cans of gasoline, fireworks and two clocks with batteries, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday.
Kelly said the vehicle also contained eight bags of a substance that might have been fertilizer, an ingredient frequently used in homemade explosive devices.
"It's granular in nature," he said. "It does have the look and the feel of fertilizer."
He said the explosive materials found in the vehicle looked like they "would have caused a significant fireball" and the would-be bomber obviously intended "to cause mayhem, to create casualties."
"New York is clearly a target of people who want to come here and do us harm," he said.
The Manhattan hot spot was reopened Sunday after thousands of tourists were evacuated for more than eight hours.
"We are very lucky," Bloomberg said. "We avoided what could have been a very deadly event."
Appearing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," U.S Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the incident appeared to be an act of terrorism.
The White House Sunday said President Barack Obama had been kept informed of the events unfolding while he attended a Washington dinner Saturday night for White House correspondents.
