Minnesota Mosque Bombed During Morning Prayers
A mosque in the US state of Minnesota was bombed early on Saturday, while worshippers gathered inside for morning prayers.
No one was injured in the attack at the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, but police say the imam’s office had been damaged.
Richard Thorton, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Minneapolis Division, that the investigation will determine whether the incident was a hate crime and who may have been behind it.
He added that the explosion was caused by an “improvised explosive device” (IED), and that investigators had recovered components of the device to figure out how it was put together.
The group’s director, Asad Zaman, that “a witness saw something being thrown at the imam’s office window from a van or truck before the blast”.
Mohamed Omar, the mosque’s executive director, added that the vehicle immediately sped away.
The predominantly Somali mosque, like many other mosques around the country, has received threatening calls and emails, Omar told local media.
