Authorities in New York City and the FBI have launched an investigation into an "ISIS-inspired act of terrorism" after two improvised explosive devices were attempted to be placed near the official residence of the city's mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
The attackers, who detonated both devices and threw at least one, "could have caused serious injury or death," said New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tish.
The incident occurred on Saturday, the BBC reports, after a group of anti-Islam protesters gathered outside Mamdani's official residence (Gracie Mansion) and clashed with a larger group of counter-protesters.
In a previous announcement, New York authorities told reporters that the protest was organized by Jake Lang, a far-right influencer who participated in the January 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol, who has now been granted amnesty.
This group was smaller than the counter-protesters, who numbered more than 100 people.
Two men who appeared to be angry with anti-Islam protesters were arrested in connection with the explosives. They are 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Qayyumi, both from Pennsylvania.
“We were lucky that the devices didn’t cause the kind of damage they were certainly capable of doing,” Tish said during a press conference on Monday. “But luck is never strategic. Devices like these have the potential to cause catastrophic damage.”
Video from the scene shows that, as the two groups clashed, Balat threw a burning object, which self-extinguished after hitting an obstacle. He then took a second object from Qayoumi, lit it and started running before throwing it.
The objects were allegedly made of glass bottles filled with explosive material and surrounded by fragments (or bolts and nuts) with a firework fuse.
Tish said the New York Police Department (NYPD) remained vigilant in its counterterrorism investigations and thanked two of the officers who acted “without hesitation and without regard for their own safety” after the devices went off. She noted that analysis of one of the devices showed it to be “a dangerous and highly flammable improvised explosive device.”
Another car was found that was linked to the perpetrators, while another suspicious object was found inside the vehicle.
