NEW YORK (AFP) - Authorities in New York said Sunday that Al-Qaeda was not

behind an attempted car bombing of Times Square and that police had several strong
leads, including camera footage of a suspicious man leaving the scene.
President Barack Obama vowed to track down the perpetrators as security forces began
scrutinizing evidence from a Nissan Pathfinder SUV abandoned late Saturday in the
theatre district with a large, spluttering homemade bomb inside.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the initial suspects in the minds of many were not to
blame.
"There is no evidence that this is tied in with Al-Qaeda or any other big terrorist
organization," Bloomberg said.
Earlier, city police chief Raymond Kelly dismissed a claim of responsibility made over
the Internet by the Pakistani group Tehreek-e-Taliban. Related article: Pakistan Taliban
claim NY bomb attempt, credibility doubted
"I'm confident we'll find out who did it," Bloomberg said alongside the police officer who
was first on the scene and whom the billionaire mayor was treating to dinner in Times
Square as a reward.
"This is the crossroads of the world. People feel safe in New York and they will continue
to come here," Bloomberg said.
It remained unclear why the improvised device -- comprised of fireworks, propane,
gasoline and possibly fertilizer -- failed to detonate, despite smoldering after partly
catching fire in the back of the Nissan.
Kelly said the bomb, had it exploded in the teeming entertainment district, would have
created a "significant fireball." The car "would have at least have been cut in half," he
said.
On a visit to the oil spill on Louisiana's coast, Obama said US security services and New
York law enforcement would do "what's necessary" to find the culprit.
"My national security teams have been taking every step necessary to ensure that our
state and local partners have the full support and cooperation of the federal government,"
Obama said.
Police had a mass of clues, starting with footage from 82 security cameras in Times
Square and the car and bomb, which were hauled to police laboratories in New York.
One sequence of film showed a man that Kelly said was acting in a "furtive" manner and
changing his clothes as he walked away from the area.
He was "a white male in his 40s" and "seen shedding a dark colored shirt revealing a red
one underneath," Kelly said.
In addition to that footage, Kelly said a tourist passerby had contacted police to say he
too "may have got a picture of the individual" caught in the frame while he was filming a
nearby mounted policeman.
The engine was still running and the emergency lights were blinking when the car,
emitting smoke, attracted the attention of a nearby street vendor.
The vendor, a Vietnam War veteran, told police, who quickly realized it was not an
ordinary car fire and brought in the bomb squad.
"I did a lap around the vehicle. The inside was smoking," the first officer on the scene,
Wayne Rhatigan, told the New York Daily News. "I smelled gunpowder and knew it
might blow. I thought it might blow any second."
As soon as a bomb was feared police evacuated thousands of people from the area,
turning the usually crammed streets into a ghost town.
Many tourists were unable to reach theaters or hotels, but Broadway shows managed to
go on and were running normally Sunday, a trade group said.
"We are very lucky... (to) avoid what could have been a very deadly event," Bloomberg
said.
Officials said the bomb was terrorism, but they were cautious about suggesting who
might have been behind the attack, raising speculation that domestic or "homegrown"
militants were responsible.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the FBI, the New York police and the
government's Terrorism Task Force were probing a "potential terrorist attack."
So far there was no evidence of a broader plot, but law enforcement authorities had been
alerted to "stay on their toes," she said.
The bomb, while threatening "mayhem," according to Kelly, was comprised of the kind
of materials available from regular stores. Bloomberg called it "amateurish."
Kelly described a multi-layered device consisting of two alarm clocks as timers, a pot of
fireworks as detonator, two canisters of gasoline, three propane gas tanks and a large box
containing what was believed to be fertilizer.
"If this had detonated, in my judgment, it would have caused casualties," he said. "You
have a large number of pedestrians in that area."
The scare raised tensions across the United States where security forces have been on
edge since a young Nigerian allegedly attempted to set off a bomb on a US airliner as it
came in to land in Detroit, Michigan. Related article: Big Apple is still the big target for
terrorists
New York City police are on constant alert after a string of terrorist plots and alleged
plots in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
In February, Afghan immigrant and self-confessed Al-Qaeda agent Najibullah Zazi, 25,
pleaded guilty to a plot to set off bombs in New York's subway system. He could be
sentenced to life in prison.
Nearly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks when airliners hijacked by Islamist suicide
squads slammed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan,
demolishing both sky scrapers.