New York bomb suspect to make first court appearance

The suspect behind the New York bombing that left 31 wounded in Manhattan`s Chelsea neighborhood will appear in court on Thursday for the first time, nearly a month after the attack.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, will appear via video link in court in his hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey from the hospital where he is undergoing treatment after being critically injured in a shootout with police.

State prosecutors charged him with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and two unlawful weapon possession counts. Two police officers were injured in the September 19 shootout that led to his arrest.

He will appear on separate terrorism charges, including use of weapons of mass destruction, before a federal court in Manhattan at a later date, yet to be determined.

The Afghan-born American, who worked in his family`s fried chicken restaurant, will appear at the Union County Courthouse on Thursday at 2pm (1800 GMT) on state charges, the indictment said.

Rahami was captured while carrying a handwritten journal that lauded Osama bin Laden and US-born Al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, and criticized US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, prosecutors said.

He was detained two days after the Chelsea bombing and a twin bomb attack along the route of a US Marine Corps run in the New Jersey town of Seaside Park.

Federal prosecutors say 31 people were wounded in Chelsea, including a victim from Britain, a driver knocked unconscious and a woman whose body was pierced with ball bearings, metal and wood.

Five additional pipe bombs were found in Rahami`s hometown of Elizabeth and a second device was found in Chelsea and subsequently defused.

The FBI believes Rahami acted alone and is not connected to any extremist groups.

US officials say he traveled extensively to Afghanistan and spent around a year in Pakistan, where he married and his wife became pregnant.

If convicted, he risks spending the rest of his life behind bars.