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NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities have detained two men suspected of carrying explosives to a protest outside New York City’s mayoral residence. Police are investigating potential links to the Islamic State extremist group, according to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
While no charges have been filed against the suspects, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, officials from the police department and federal prosecutors are expected to provide updates in a news conference later today. Commissioner Tisch stated in a morning briefing that the incident is being treated as a case of “ISIS-inspired terrorism,” referencing the notorious extremist organization.
As the investigation unfolds, law enforcement officials conducted a search of a home in Middletown Township, northeastern Pennsylvania. Concurrently, a separate federal inquiry is being carried out in nearby Newtown, as confirmed by local police. Both investigations are connected to the events outside the New York mayor’s residence, according to a social media post by Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick on Sunday.
The homemade explosive devices, which failed to detonate, were thrown amidst heated counterprotests on Saturday. These clashes were in response to an anti-Islamic protest organized by Jake Lang, a far-right activist known for his opposition to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Mayor Mamdani, a Democrat and the first Muslim to hold the position, and his wife were not present at Gracie Mansion during the incident.
Speaking to reporters outside the mayoral residence on Monday, Mayor Mamdani remarked that Balat and Kayumi “traveled from Pennsylvania and attempted to incite violence in New York City.”
It wasn’t immediately clear whether 18-year-old Balat or 19-year-old Kayumi have attorneys who can speak to the accusations. Attempts to reach their families were not immediately successful.
Tisch said there are no indications that the men’s alleged activities were connected to the ongoing war in Iran. She declined to say more about why authorities believe the suspects were motivated by the Islamic State group, a Sunni extremist group. Iran’s population is almost entirely Shiite, the other main religious community within Islam.
While Mamdani and Tisch briefed reporters Monday, Lang heckled from outside the Gracie Mansion gates.
Lang’s sparsely attended protest Saturday drew a far larger group of counterdemonstrators, including one person who police say tossed a smoking object containing nuts, bolts, screws and a “hobby fuse” into the crowd.
The device extinguished itself steps from police officers, Tisch noted. The same person who threw it then dropped a second device that did not appear to ignite, the commissioner said.
The scene had grown chaotic even before the devices were thrown. Police said one person involved in the anti-Islam protest, Ian McGinnis, 21, was arrested after pepper-spraying counterprotesters. A message seeking comment was left for an attorney for McGinnis.
Three others were taken into custody but were released without charges.
After the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Lang was charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes. He was later freed from prison as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency. Lang recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida.
Earlier this year, he organized a rally in Minneapolis in support of Trump’s immigration crackdown, drawing an angry crowd of counterprotesters who quickly chased him away.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that police are now identifying one of the suspects by the name Ibrahim Kayumi, instead of Ibrahim Nikks.
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Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York and David Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.