CHRISTMAS TERROR

ISIS-inspired bomber’s subway dud Chose spot because of Yule posters

Radical Islamic terrorist Akayed Ullah set off a crude pipe bomb in a Times Square passage way yesterday, but luckily hurt no one but himself. Ullah said he was inspired by attacks on European Christmas markets.

The festive Christmas posters in the passageway between the Port Authority Bus Terminal and Times Square subway station are supposed to fill harried straphangers with seasonal cheer.

But an ISIS-loving cabby from Bangladesh found them completely enraging — while also seeing them as inspirational reminders of the terror group’s holiday attacks around the world.

At 7:20 a.m. Monday, at the start of the morning rush, Akayed Ullah, 27, stood in front of one of the posters and detonated a homemade pipe bomb that was hidden under his jacket — causing a wave of panic and confusion while inflicting little damage, officials said.

Ullah had become “disillusioned with America,” he later told investigators from his hospital bed, and wanted revenge for decades of US attacks on Muslims, saying, “They’ve been bombing [my people] and I wanted to do damage here,” according to law-enforcement sources.

The low-tech bomb — fashioned from Christmas lights and other items using instructions he found in al Qaeda’s online propaganda magazine Inspire, sources said — malfunctioned.

No one was killed, including Ullah, who suffered burns and internal injuries and was left lying in the tunnel clutching his blackened stomach, security footage shows.

But he did cause plenty of terror at the bustling transit hub — with commuters and workers trampling over each other in a mad dash for the exits or to get aboard departing trains.

“We heard, ‘Boom!’ Then we saw smoke coming. And then, right after the smoke, I just ran upstairs. All of us just ran upstairs,” said Christina Bethea, 29, a security guard from Yonkers who was just getting off the A train when the bomb went off.

“When you hear a boom and see smoke, that means get the hell out of there,” she added.

While people were fleeing the smoke-filled scene, brave Port Authority police officers ran toward the danger — stopping Ullah before he could reach for his cellphone, which they worried could be a detonator for another bomb.

Officer Anthony Manferdini, 28, a former Marine with bombtechnician experience, was on patrol in the area when the bomb went off. He radioed fellow officers Jack Collins, former Marine Sean Gallagher and former soldier Drew Preston, and the three found the injured suspect lying on the ground with visible wires stretching from his jacket to his pants — and reaching for his cellphone, according to officials.

The officers — knowing that a cellphone could indicate a detonation device — prevented Ullah from reaching the device and placed him under arrest, according to a source.

Ullah was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where investigators grilled him for almost an hour.

There, the Brooklyn resident revealed that the attack was specifically inspired by ISIS — “not al Qaeda” — although he’d had no direct contact with the group, and that he’d acted alone using commercially available parts.

Ullah wanted to avenge what he described as decades of violence against followers of Islam — specifically citing Gaza, Syria and Iraq.

He mentioned President Trump by name and also blamed past administrations.

Ullah also said he was antagonized by the Christmas posters in the tunnel, which he had walked past many times on his way to work, sources said.

“He acknowledges he purposely set it off then and there,” a senior law-enforcement official told The Post. “If you look at the video, he purposely caused the detonation by connecting wires.”

ISIS propaganda released just weeks ago features a picture of Santa Claus in Times Square next to explosives and the phrase “We meet at Christmas in New York . . . soon,” according to terror watchdog group Site Intel.

An Islamic State militant also drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market last year, killing 12 and injuring 56.

Investigators kept Ullah talking as long as they could — giving him two breaks for prayers — because he said he was going to clam up once he left his hospital room, but he eventually had to go to intensive care for more treatment.

Meanwhile, a SWAT team raided the Ocean Parkway home where he lives with his family, according to witnesses.

“A major amount of cops came out of cars . . . It was a SWAT team,” said Eric Rivas, a filmmaker who was shooting a scene nearby.

“I saw a whole lot of guns. They had [battering rams] to break down the doors. It was crazy. It was pretty intense.”

The botched attack also prompted a flurry of activities from lawmakers, who condemned the attacker but praised first responders for keeping everyone as safe as possible.

“As New Yorkers, our lives revolve around the subways. When we hear of an attack in the subways, it’s incredibly unsettling,” Mayor de Blasio said at a Monday morning press conference in Times Square alongside Gov. Cuomo and Police Commissioner James O’Neill.

“Thank God the perpetrator did not achieve his ultimate goals,” de Blasio said. “Thank God our first responders were there so quickly to address the situation, to make sure people were safe. Thank God the only injuries as we know at this point were minor.”

Cuomo said this is the new normal for the Big Apple.

“This is New York. The reality is that we are a target by many who would like to make a statement against democracy, against freedom,” he said. “We are the Statue of Liberty in our harbor. And that makes us an international target, we understand that.

“With the Internet now, anyone can go on the Internet and download garbage and vileness on how to put together an amateur-level explosive device, and that is a reality that we live with.

“The counter-reality is that this is New York, and we all pitch together, and we are a savvy people, and we keep our eyes open. And that’s what ‘see something, say something’ is all about.”

Not to take anything away from New York’s Finest and the rest of the law-enforcement community, but the city just dodged what could easily have become a terrorism nightmare. That dozens of people weren’t killed or injured by a would-be suicide bomber’s homemade explosive is only due to the fact that it was a crude, low-tech pipe bomb.

But it’s yet another reminder that New York remains the No. 1 target of jihadists, organized ones as well as lone wolves like 27year-old Akayed Ullah.

And, moreover, that New York — especially its transit system — remains vulnerable to such attacks, for all the caution and vigilance of police and civilians.

The Bangladeshi native, reportedly inspired by ISIS, exploded his “suicide vest” in the crowded tunnel beneath the Port Authority Bus Terminal during Monday morning’s rush hour.

Ullah himself was seriously wounded, and three others sustained non-life-threatening injuries. His reported motive: avenging violence against Muslims across the world.

This follows October’s truck attack near Ground Zero that claimed eight innocent lives. That one also could’ve been worse: A police officer interrupted it by shooting the perp.

But the cold reality remains that the NYPD faces a brutal challenge in aiming to prevent all terrorist attacks.

Which is why it’s so mystifying that the City Council is moving ahead to pass the Right to Know Act, which would dangerously discourage cops’ ability to perform proactive policing.

A vote is set for next week on this legislation, which is designed to get cops to ignore potential crimes and suspicious behavior for fear of civilian complaints.

But New Yorkers don’t want a police department that merely arrives at the scene of a tragedy to pick up the pieces. They want attacks like Monday’s prevented.

That means not handcuffing the NYPD’s ability to remain constantly vigilant.