Two attacks in two months rattles the city of New York
The city of New York has been under extreme heat and threat of terrorism for more or less the past year with three pretty serious terror acts that have effected dozens of citizens and tourists throughout the downtown region of the city. The most recent, an explosion at one of NYC's most trafficked public transit regions.
Inside of the Port Authority bus terminal, Akayed Ullah walked inside of the station that welcomes around 200,000 passing pedestrians daily with a report of at least two pipe bombs attached to his body when one partially exploded, forcing the suspect and a new report of at least four other nearby citizens with minor injuries.
Police forced everyone out of the station telling people that the incident was simply a 'suspicious package' situation. The subway continued trailing by, though possibly not stopping at the station itself. Then, all at once, the city nearly completely froze.
Police blocked the entire street nearby as they piled the pedestrian passage ways on Times Square. Metro stations across midtown Manhattan near the station that was now clearly attacked froze and shut down, as metro/subway routes were heavily delayed and temporarily halted as investigations continued for the search of another bomb.
The FBI and counter-terror units began heavily investigating Akayed, and their inquiry resulted in confirmations that not only was he pledging allegiance to ISIS - but also signifying the Israel-Palestinian tensions over Jerusalem City as a potential backward motive for the attack he meant to carry out.
It was recognized Internationally as the first attempted suicide bombing by ISIS inside of the United States of America. Although ISIS has terrorized Orlando with 49 deaths, San Bernandino with another large quantity and New York City itself twice before - none of them were suicide bombings. This one was clearly a failed attack.
Akayed Ullah meant to bomb himself with two pipe bombs probably further down in the more trafficked area of the metro station - if not on the subway itself - in order to kill a major quantity of pedestrians and citizens that passed by on their morning rush hour commute. Instead a technical difficulty luckily saved dozens of lives.
Although 4 people were hurt in the attack, the NYC mayor Bill DeBlasio called the incident an 'attempted terror attack' - the same name he gave to the September 2016 bombings. It's clear many Government officials resolve terror situations by only defining a real attack by a report of a fatality, which technically isn't incorrect.
In September of 2016, a pressure cooker bomb left in a garbage can detonated near Central Park and midtown Manhattan that injured 30 citizens passing by on nearby streets. Police called the incident a 'terror attack' or an 'attempted terror attack'. Heavy police presence found another un-detonated explosive on a nearby street.
If that wasn't enough to convince you that New York City is a clear-cut target of the terror group; an attack in September of 2017 - not too long ago - killed 8 in the deadliest attack in the city since September of 2001, 9/11. A man rammed into dozens of citizens on a bike path killing five citizens of Argentina and one from Belgium, 2 Americans.
NYC has also been threatened countless times by ISIS and it's terror group affiliates seen as America's largest city and a terror group's dream destination. It's been clear in the past that ISIS' ultimate goal in terror dreams against America was a replica of Al-Qaeda's 9/11 massacre in New York City or an attack 'far more deadly'.
Although you may think that it is an extremely far-fetched plan considering the deadliest ISIS attack in the city has killed eight people in comparison to much more deadly attacks throughout Europe and north-Africa, it isn't considering the group's loss of territory in the Middle-East may encourage any mainland radicalized Islamist to terrorize any soft targets they can reach.