WASHINGTON: Law enforcement authorities in New York on Friday identified author Salman Rushdie's assailant as 24-year-old Hadi Matar from New Jersey, believed, on the basis of his social media posts, to be a supporter of fundamentalist forces in Iran which initiated a fatwa on the writer in 1988.
Salman Rushdie attack: Live updates
After stabbing, Rushdie was flown to UPMC Hamot Surgery Center in Erie, Pennsylvania and underwent surgery. Andrew Wylie, Rushdie's agent, said the writer was on a ventilator with a damaged liver, severed nerves in an arm and an eye he was likely to lose.
