On December 11th, an attempted suicide attacker set off a pipe bomb strapped to his body in a busy Manhattan subway. No one was killed from the incident, as the bomb failed to fully detonate and injured only the attacker himself.

The attack took place along a pedestrian walkway connecting the Seventh Avenue, Eighth Avenue, and Broadway subway lines. Times Square was nearly put at standstill as thousands of people fled the subway, flooding the surrounding streets.

The attacker has been identified to be a man named Akayed Ullah. The 27-year-old lives in Brooklyn with his wife and 1-year-old child. He had no history of criminal activity before the bombing. He will face three state terrorism-related charges and five federal terrorism-related charges after he is released from the Bellevue Hospital Center.

The bomb itself was crudely assembled: it consisted of a length of pipe stuffed with match heads with the ends stopped up. Ullah strapped the pipe to himself with “Velcro and zip-ties” and detonated it with a broken Christmas tree light. Ullah told investigators that he set off the bomb in retaliation for the American airstrike attacks in Syria and other attacks on the Islamic State. He decided to attack the busy Manhattan subway station to be close to “as many innocent people as possible.”

President Trump has responded to the attack with criticism toward America’s immigration system. Current immigration regulations allow for extended family members of U.S. citizens to receive green cards. Ullah, an immigrant from Bangladesh, legally entered the United States in 2011 through a Visa program designed for people with relatives living in the United States. President Trump asserted, “The terrible harm that this flawed system inflicts on America’s security and economy has long been clear. I am determined to improve our immigration system to put our country and our people first.”

This is the second attack on New York City in the past three months. We can only hope that no more are coming in the near future.