Russian Embassy In Washington Says Joint Efforts Are Needed To Ensure Safety Of Russian And US Citizens
The Russian Embassy in the United States has emphasized the need for joint and coordinated efforts from both countries to ensure the safety of their citizens.
Nikolai Lakhonin, the press secretary of the Russian Embassy in Washington, expressed the views of the Russian government in connection with the attempted terror attack in Manhattan on Monday.
Lakhonin said all terrorist groups around the world are using similar techniques to target people, and Russia “knows them well.”
“Our county was targeted by such attacks on multiple occasions,” he said.
Lakhonin added that both the Russian and the U.S. governments need to cooperate with each other to ensure the safety of their citizens. Lakhonin also stated that the cooperation among both countries will also include resuming counter-terrorism activities for the special services.
According to Sputnik News, the press secretary revealed that the Russian Embassy has no information about any Russian citizen among the victims of the Manhattan terrorist attack. Lakhonin also urged Russian nationals in the U.S. to remain alert following these attacks.
Earlier on Monday, an improvised device exploded in a walkway below Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. Luckily, no casualty occurred due to this explosion, although five people received minor injuries. The police officials said the blast occurred after a man detonated a bomb inside the subway. The police also arrested Akayed Ullah, 27, in connection with the blast.
Russian embassy has no information on Russians among victims of New York explosionhttps://t.co/NiUm8mQ6BD pic.twitter.com/YyDFiLonnu
— TASS (@tassagency_en) December 12, 2017
Tyler Houlton, the spokesman of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, revealed that Ullah is a lawful U.S. resident who arrived from Bangladesh in 2011 on a family immigrant visa.
According to CNN, it was a lone wolf attack by the suspect, who acted in response to the action of Israeli forces in Gaza. The suspect has also pledged allegiance to ISIS. A source close to the investigation told CNN that the suspect had a minimum of two devices, including a foot-long pipe containing black powder, nails, screws, wires, and a battery at the time of the explosion. The blast was done with the pipe device. Fortunately, the impact of the explosion was lessened as the pipe failed to explode, thus making it a partial blast.
The CNN report also claimed that Ullah made the bomb last week at his Brooklyn apartment.
U.S. authorities are currently treating the explosion as an attempted terrorist attack.
