US bomber’s online taunts to president before attack

THE New York bomb suspect wrote: “Trump, you failed to protect your nation” on Facebook before heading to a busy transit hub to set off a pipe bomb, prosecutors said yesterday.

Akayed Ullah, from Bangladesh, has been charged with providing material support to terrorists and using weapons of mass destruction, following the failed suicide bomb attack on Monday.

The 27-year-old was arrested after setting off a pipe bomb strapped to his body at one of New York’s busiest commuter hubs, leaving four people injured. He later told police he carried out the attack “for the Islamic State” (Isil), according to court papers filed by federal prosecutors.

Ullah posted the message to the president on Facebook on the morning of the attack. His passport was found at his home covered in handwritten notes, including one that read: “O America, die in your rage.”

Mr Trump has said he would end immigration provisions in response to the attack. Speaking at the White House yesterday, the president highlighted that two recent terror incidents in New York involved foreign nationals living in the US on immigration programs.

Ullah arrived in the US in 2011 on a visa available to those with family connections in the country. Sayfullo Saipov, the 29-year-old Uzbek immigrant who killed eight people in an attack in November, was living in the US under a diversity lottery program.

Mr Trump said Congress “must get involved immediately” as he vowed that the two immigration programmes “will be ended”.

Ullah became radicalised after he began watching pro-isil material online in 2014 and carried out his attack because he was angry over US policies in the Middle East, prosecutors said.

The bomb, described as a low-tech device, exploded in an underpass leading to three railway lines and the Port Authority Bus Terminal near Times Square, the nation’s busiest bus station.