FBI sees no imminent threat following New York raids

by Rolfe Winkler

WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - .... A joint anti-terrorism task force carried out raids on Monday in the Queens borough of New York, in an area believed to have been visited by a man suspected of sympathizing with al Qaeda. The raids rattled some residents as they came just days after the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

New York police and the FBI have provided few details about the raids. Witnesses said dozens of heavily armed FBI agents arrived in a phalanx of unmarked vehicles and stormed the building in the early morning.

A federal law enforcement official said three search warrants had been executed.

After the raids, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security advised police how to track evidence of bomb-making, including looking for burn marks typically found on suspects involved in a particular kind of bomb-making. (Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, editing by Frances Kerry)