Ahmad Khan Rahami, suspect in NYC and NJ bomb attacks

Just days after Pope Francis declared the act of killing in the name of God to be satanic, a series of possible terror-inspired bomb explosions and knife attacks across the country have put American nerves on edge.

Christian Today (CT) is reporting on the series of attacks that occurred this weekend which involved the detonation of crude explosive devices in New York City and New Jersey and a knife attack by a man yelling praise to Allah. There were no fatalities in any of the incidents but dozens were injured.

“While officials described all three as deliberate, criminal acts and were investigating them as potential ‘acts of terrorism,’ they stopped short of characterizing the motivation behind any of them until more evidence is uncovered,” CT reports.

All of the attacks happened within a 12 hour period on Saturday, beginning at 9:30 a.m. with the detonation of a pipe bomb that was hidden in a plastic garbage can in Seaside Park, New Jersey. The device was timed to go off during a 5K charity race but the event started late, which is thought to have saved many lives.

Later in the day, at approximately 8:30 a.m., a bomb thought to have been hidden in a construction toolbox in front of a building detonated on West 23rd Street in Manhattan and injured 29 people. A second, unexploded device was found four blocks away. According to law enforcement, the device was described as being a pressure cooker with wiring and a cellphone attached that was then placed into a plastic bag.

Authorities have since released the name of Ahmad Khan Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen of Afghan descent in Elizabeth, New Jersey, who is being sought for questioning regarding the blasts in New Jersey and New York City.

Just an hour after the New York City explosion, a 22 year-old Somali man named Dahir A. Adan went on a bloody slashing spree inside the Crossroads Mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota which left eight people injured. During the assault, eyewitnesses say the man asked at least one victim if they were Muslim and also referenced Allah.

Crossroads Mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota

The assault ended when an off-duty policeman named Jason Falconer shot and killed Adan.

ISIS-related media announced yesterday morning that they were responsible for the attack and referred to Adan as “a soldier of the Islamic State.”

Meanwhile, at approximately 8:30 p.m. last night, two men reported seeing a suspicious package in a trash can near the Elizabeth train station in New Jersey. The device is said to have detonated this morning while law enforcement officers working with a remote controlled robot were working to disarm them. No one was injured.

The series of attacks ended a three-month reprieve from attacks on American soil since the June 12 slaying of 49 people in an Orlando nightclub. This attack occurred six months after a San Bernardino couple killed 14 people and left 22 seriously injured at an employee Christmas party.

Officials are calling the attacks “terrorism” but have not yet learned if the explosions in New York and New Jersey were inspired by terror groups outside the U.S.

"The crudity of the devices in all three cases certainly doesn't point to any group that's been developing [improvised explosive devices] for years," said a US official involved in the investigation who requested anonymity to discuss the inquiry.

The crude nature of the devices and the poor planning of the explosions has some investigators worried that the attacks may have just been a test of local security, which could mean that more is to come.

The attacks come just a week after Pope Francis celebrated Mass for Father Jacques Hamel, the priest who was slain on the altar during Mass by two teenaged jihadis in Rouen, France this summer. 

“ . . . A good man, a meek man, a man who always tried to build peace was murdered (…). This is the satanic thread of persecution” the pope said about Hamel.

"What a pleasure it would be if all religious confessions would say: 'to kill in the name of God is satanic'.”

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