THE United States says it has evidence that the Taliban was behind the failed attempt to detonate a car bomb in the heart of New York.
THE United States says it has evidence that the Taliban was behind the failed attempt to detonate a car bomb in the heart of New Yorky.
“We’ve now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack,” US Attorney General Eric Holder told current affairs talk show This Week.
“We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it, and that he was working at their direction,” he said, referring to Faisal Shahzad, the prime suspect in the attempted bombing.
Mr Shahzad, a Pakistani-born American, was pulled off a plane to Dubai and arrested on Monday for allegedly leaving a sport utility vehicle rigged to explode in New York’s Times Square just over a week ago.
Mr Holder’s comments came as the New York Times reported that American military chiefs have told Pakistan’s Government it must crack down on Islamic extremists or face severe consequences.
General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, urged Pakistan’s General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Islamabad on Friday to quickly begin a military offensive against the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda in North Waziristan.
John Brennan, the White House deputy national security adviser, echoed Holder’s charges, pointing the finger at the Pakistani Taliban in an interview with CNN.
“It looks like he was working on behalf of the TTP, the Pakistani Taliban,” Brennan said. “This group is closely allied with al-Qaeda. This is something that we’re taking very seriously.”
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