Federal officials offer new reward for information related to unsolved 2008 Times Square bombing

The FBI and NYPD on Wednesday increased the reward for information on a still unsolved 2008 bombing at a Times Square recruiting station to $115,000 and disclosed that the bomb used a component typically found on battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Even though no one got hurt, the potential was there," said NYPD Intelligence Division Chief Thomas Galati at a Foley Square news conference. "We want to make sure this doesn't happen again."

The news conference came near the 7th anniversary of the March 6, 2008, bombing, when surveillance video caught a man on a blue bicycle stopping between 3 am and 4 am near the recruiting station at W.43d and 7th Ave. to plant a bomb and light the fuse before fleeing on his bike.

Officials say they believe the biker may have had a lookout team of as many as five working with him. They have linked the case to bombs also placed by a biker between 3 am and 4 am at the British Consulate in May, 2005, and the Mexican Consulate in October, 2007.

The bomb, referred to as an "improvised grenade," was built with an ammunition can commonly used in Iraq and Afghanistan that was filled halfway with black powder and detonated using a time fuse, according to a news release.

Galati and FBI official Peter Tzitzis, special agent in charge of the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, said they have classified the bombing as an act of domestic terrorism, and have identified several "persons of interest," but still need the public's help.

"There is no statute of limitations on a dangerous attack that occurred in the heart of New York City," Tzitzis said.

A $65,000 reward was offered in 2013, but officials said none of it has yet been paid out in return for information. The FBI tip line is 212-384-1000.