Undefined Explosive Device (UED) event in New York, New York area, United States of America on Fri 22nd October 2021

The New York Police Department (NYPD) on Friday set up a police cordon and called in the bomb squad after a suspicious package was found near the United Nations building and newly opened Turkish House (Türkevi), according to the Russian state TV channel RT and Russian state-owned RIA News. The area is home to embassies of many countries. The bomb squad has been called to the scene and the area has been cleared. Sputnik International seperately reported that according to preliminary information shared by the police, the object turned out to be a box of flowers. The street, which was closed to traffic, was later reopened when the bomb disposal teams revealed that there were cosmetic products in the suspicious package. Many fighters from ISIL and other radical Sunni Islamist groups in Syria deem Shi’ites as infidels and consider their shrines idolatrous, and therefore legitimate targets. Their attacks have stirred fears in neighbouring Turkey that the Islamists’ next target will be the tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the Ottoman Empire, which lies on the Euphrates river inside Syria but is guarded by Turkish special forces. Ankara regards the tomb as sovereign Turkish territory under a treaty signed with France in 1921, when Syria was under French rule, and threatened earlier this month to retaliate for any attack on the mausoleum. President Abdullah Gul said on Sunday Turkey would defend the site in the same way it would defend any Turkish land. “However the motherland is protected, that place will be protected in the same way,” he said.