ISLAMABAD- A Pakistani-American admitted trying to detonate a bomb in New York's busy Times Square and receiving bomb-making training in a known Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold in Pakistan, U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Prosecutors charged Faisal Shahzad, 30, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, with five counts, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and trying to kill and maim people within the United States.
"If successful it could have resulted in a lethal terrorist attack, causing death and destruction in the heart of New York City, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said of the bomb plot.
Shahzad was arrested late on Monday after he was taken off an Emirates plane that was about to depart for Dubai. Hours later, several of his relatives were arrested in Pakistan, security sources said.
"We have picked up a few family members" related to Faisal Shahzad, the chief suspect in the attempted attack, a security official in Karachi said. A friend of Shahzad was also arrested.
Another intelligence official in Pakistan said Shahzad received militant training in northwest Pakistan near the garrison town of Kohat. The area around Kohat is a stronghold of Tariq Afridi, the Pakistani Taliban commander in the region.
A complaint filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday said that Shahzad admitted "that he had attempted to detonate a bomb in Times Square" and "that he had recently received bomb-making training in Waziristan, Pakistan."
Shahzad traveled to the United States from Pakistan on Feb. 3 and told immigration officials that he had been visiting his parents in Pakistan for the past five months and that his wife remained in Pakistan, the complaint said.
The Pakistani government, which could come under renewed U.S. pressure to crack down harder on militants after the Times Square incident, said on Tuesday it would help the United States bring Shahzad to justice
Shahzad will appear in Manhattan federal court later on Tuesday to face charges "for allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1", according to a statement by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, FBI agent George Venizelos and New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
"We will cooperate with the United States in identifying this individual and bringing him to justice," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters.
U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson met Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Malik and discussed the issue, Pakistani officials and the U.S. Embassy said.
"We have an ongoing cooperation with the United States on anti-terrorism efforts. If required by the United States, we will extend full cooperation to them in this regard," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said.
Malik said Faisal's family came from northwestern Pakistan which is mainly inhabited by Pashtuns and where Islamic militants are active.
"He belongs to Pabbi," he said, referring to a small town near the northwestern city of Peshawar.
"He has Pakistani identification documents. We are making further checks."
A source familiar with the investigation in the United States said Faisal was of Kashmiri descent.
Pakistan is an ally of the United States and has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda operatives and handed over many of them to the United States after it signed up to the U.S.-led "war on terrorism" after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
The Taliban in Pakistan said on Sunday it planted the bomb in Times Square to avenge the killing in April of al Qaeda's two leaders in Iraq as well as U.S. interference in Muslim countries.
Some officials voiced scepticism about the claim. But former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel, who last year oversaw an Obama administration strategy review on Afghanistan and Pakistan, cautioned against dismissing a possible role by the Taliban
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