NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Two men pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges they brought homemade bombs to an anti-Islam protest outside New York City\u2019s mayor\u2019s home in a failed attempt at a terror attack inspired by the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n
Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, entered the pleas during a brief appearance in federal court in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
The two, who are both from the Philadelphia-area, face charges that include attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors say Balat and Kayumi drove from their home state to Manhattan in order to attack a March 7 anti-Islam demonstration in front of Gracie Mansion. The protest was hosted by Jake Lang, a far-right activist and critic of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim to hold the office.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors say the pair threw two devices containing the explosive TATP and shrapnel, but the jar-sized bombs failed to detonate. No one was injured and the two were quickly detained. The mayor and his wife were not home at the time.<\/p>\n
Balat and Kayumi later told police they were inspired by the Islamic State group, according to a federal complaint. The two were also recorded on their vehicle’s dashcam describing their plan to kill as many as 60 people in a bid to \u201cstart terror,” according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n
Balat’s lawyer declined to comment after the hearing. Kayumi’s attorneys didn\u2019t immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Their next court date is June 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Two men pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges they brought homemade bombs to an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[8409,64887,64663,75,84,83,9,24,79170,63,833,834,3065,2336,31712,829,831,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-198773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-gracie-mansion","9":"tag-ibrahim-kayumi","10":"tag-jake-lang","11":"tag-manhattan","12":"tag-manhattan-headlines","13":"tag-manhattan-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-mayor-mansion-islamic-state-bomb","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","19":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","20":"tag-product-30083-ap-new-york-city-news-no-weather","21":"tag-product-30085-ap-new-york-state-news-no-weather","22":"tag-product-30097-ap-pennsylvania-state-news-no-weather","23":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","24":"tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","25":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}