Militant arrested in pre-dawn NYC raid

       New York City police and the FBI raided homes in the borough of Queens early on Monday as part of an investigation that has tracked a man suspected of sympathising with al-Qaeda,officials said.
       Law enforcement officials provided few details, calling it part of an ongoing investigation by a joint terrorism task force, but members of US Congress briefed by the FBI said there was no imminent danger.
       Authorities launched the raids after a suspect they had under surveillance met with people in Queens, the ethnically diverse borough across the East River from Manhattan.
       Neighbours at one apartment building,where the home of five Afghan men was searched, described an operation in which heavily armed FBI agents arrived in unmarked vehicles and stormed the building early in the morning.
       "It was scary. I wasn't going to stop the FBI and ask them what was going on," said Melissa Khan,28.
       At another building, agents took away four Bosnians - a couple and their two adult children - from an apartment they have shared for three years, said an aide to City Councilman John Liu.
       At least two of the Bosnians appeared to have returned home by Monday night.A man who answered the door refused to speak to reporters.
       A neighbour said she believed a son of the couple, a student at Queens College, remained in detention.
       At the home of the five Afghanis, a man who identified himself as Amanulla Akvari, a 30-year-old taxi driver, said the FBI raided the apartment at 2.30am.
       He was brought in for questioning and released and said he had no idea why his home was targeted. He believed that one of his roommates was arrested.
       "[Investigators] are very good now at tracking potentially dangerous actions and this was preventive," said Charles Schumer, a US Senator from New York who was briefed by FBI officials.
       Peter King, a Republican congressman from New York who was also briefed,said the main suspect "was being watched and concern grew as he met with a group of individuals in Queens over the weekend".
       "There is very good reason to believe that there is a connection to al-Qaeda ...[officers] would not have moved as quickly as they did if they did not believe there was real potential," he added.
       The New York Times , citing a senior law enforcement official, said authorities had uncovered a small group who espoused a militant ideology aligned with al-Qaeda. Neither a specific plot nor a target of any planned attack had been detected, but their activities had aroused suspicion.