Pakistani Taliban claims New York City car bomb

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's Taliban chief promised attacks on major US cities in a video apparently dated early April and released following the weekend's car bomb attempt in New York City, a monitoring group said Monday.

It followed reports of another video in which the group apparently tried to take credit for that attempted strike.

US authorities have played down the potential connection between the Pakistani militant network and the car bomb attempt in New York's Times Square, saying the group does not have the global infrastructure to carry out such a strike.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Monday that investigators had made substantial progress in the investigation into the failed car bombing attempt in New York's Times Square and that those involved would eventually be caught.

"I think that we have made really substantial progress," Holder told reporters, adding that "ultimately this investigation will be successful and the people responsible for that attempt will be found and brought to justice."

Holder said that investigators were still looking for the individual spotted in a surveillance video near the scene.

Holder was cautious about linking it to international terrorism and claims of responsibility by the Taliban in Pakistan.

"I know that group in the past has claimed responsibility for incidents that (they) ultimately were not connected to," he said, adding it was too early to say who was in fact responsible for the attempted attack.

In the Taliban video, Mehsud also refutes earlier Pakistani and American claims that he died in a US missile strike in January, a belief Pakistani intelligence officials recently revised.

SITE, a US-based terrorist tracking organization, first uncovered the video on YouTube, where the video has since been removed.

Reuters contributed to this story.

Associated Press

(China Daily 05/04/2010 page12)