BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Federal agents issued an arrest warrant  February 14 for a North Carolina man whose truck was spotted near  the scene of a fatal women’s clinic bombing in Alabama  in late January.

U.S. Attorney Doug Jones said Eric Robert Rudolph was charged  with using an explosive device. An off-duty police officer was killed and  a nurse critically injured in the Jan. 29 explosion at the New Woman All  Women Health Care center in Birmingham, Alabama.

Authorities also announced a $100,000 reward for information  leading to the bomber’s arrest and conviction.

A shadowy group calling itself the Army of God claimed responsibility for the clinic bombing in a letter delivered to media organizations four days after the blast.

Rudolph, 31, has been the target of a massive manhunt involving  more than 100 federal and state law officers in three states since the  explosion.  Until Feb. 14, however, he was wanted only as a material witness to the blast.

Rudolph’s 1989 gray Nissan pickup truck was spotted near the clinic the day it was bombed, and when he did not come forward, federal officials obtained a material witness warrant that would have allowed them to detain him for questioning.

His truck was found mired in mud in mid-February by hunters three kilometers from Rudolph’s mobile home near Murphy, North Carolina, about  400 km northeast of Birmingham.
Rudolph grew up in that remote area, and agents with bloodhounds  and high-powered weapons have spent the past week searching the  Smoky Mountains for him without success.

FBI agent James Cavanaugh, who heads the probe, and other law  enforcement officials urged Rudolph to turn himself in.

Violence by extremists in the name of the ”Army of God” dates back to 1982, when an Edwardsville, Illinois doctor and his wife were held for ransom by a man later convicted of three abortion clinic bombings, the civil rights group said.

When asked whether agents believe Rudolph acted alone in the  bombing, Cavanaugh said, “We’ve cast a wide net. I think it’s too  early to tell.”

– via Pro-Life E-News Canada