DUBAI/ NEW YORK (Agencies)

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attempted car bomb attack in New York's Times Square, a statement on an Islamist website said on Sunday.

In 1 minute video allegedly released by the Pakistani Taliban, the group says the attack is revenge for the death of its leader Baitullah Mehsud and the recent killings of the top leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq. Images of the slain militants are shown as an unidentified voice recites the message. English subtitles are at the bottom of the screen.

The video was uncovered Sunday by the U.S.-based SITE intelligence Group, which monitors militant websites.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the claim.

Al-Qaeda's Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri -- also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir -- and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of its local affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, were killed last month.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the two were found dead in a hole in the ground inside a house after it was surrounded and stormed by troops.

A car bomb was defused in New York's Times Square on Saturday evening. U.S. police found it in a sport utility vehicle when the area was packed with tourists and theatre-goers.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration was considering all possibilities regarding the motivation behind the bomb scare in Times Square.

Failed attack

Investigators raced Sunday to find who attempted to detonate an "amateurish" but potentially deadly car bomb in New York's Times Square, combing through a wealth of clues from fingerprints to surveillance video.

Thanks to a T-shirt vendor and Vietnam War veteran who saw smoke coming from the explosives laden vehicle, police were able to foil a fiery explosion in the city's Broadway theater district that could have been devastating on a crowded Saturday night.

"We are very lucky... (to) avoid what could have been a very deadly event," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told an impromptu press conference early Sunday.

Bomb squad officers discovered propane gas tanks, fireworks and timing devices loaded into the back of the sports utility vehicle after the T-shirt seller alerted authorities around 6:30 pm (2230 GMT) on Saturday.

Officials said it was the work of terrorists, but who—whether homegrown extremists, al-Qaeda or someone else -- was not immediately known.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the FBI, the New York police and the government's Terrorism Task Force were probing the "potential terrorist attack," poring over the vehicle and surveillance camera video for leads.