FBI labels mailbox bombs, "domestic terrorism"
qctimes.com
URBANDALE, Iowa — The U.S. Postal Service pulled rural letter carriers off their routes in parts of Iowa and Illinois on Friday and issued a public alert after five people were injured by pipe bombs found in or near rural mailboxes.
"We looked at this letter and we are reviewing this as a domestic terrorism incident," said James Bogner, an FBI spokesman.
"We don’t know if all the devices have been found or there are devices remaining … We probably won’t know for a while," he said.
U.S. Postal Inspector Linda Jensen said eight bombs were found at Morrison, Mount Carroll and Elizabeth in Illinois, and at Asbury, Farley, Tipton, Anamosa and rural Scott County in Iowa.
"We have five known injuries because of the detonation of these improvised devices," she said.
Joleen Baxa, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service, said mail delivery would be suspended through Saturday in all areas east of Cedar Rapids and in northern Illinois.
A postal customer who was injured in Tipton, a town of 3,100 people in Cedar County, was taken to University Hospitals in Iowa City. The extent of injuries was not known, Jensen said.
Jensen said consistencies in the placement of the devices to indicate that the effort was related. She said that does not mean it was just one person.
No suspect was identified, but Bogner said evidence was being reviewed in hopes of catching someone quickly.
"The investigation is still just a few hours old," he said.
Of the eight devices, Jensen said, five detonated. Three did not.
The first report came in about 1 p.m. and the other reports quickly followed, she said. They did not say which bomb was the first to detonate. |
