A 56-year-old man has been arrested in Florida in connection with a mail-bombing campaign aimed at critics of US President Donald Trump.
US officials named the man as Cesar Sayoc. He faces five charges including mailing explosives and threatening ex-presidents.
Mr. Trump said the acts were “despicable and have no place in our country”.
Fourteen items have been sent in recent days to figures including ex-President Barack Obama and actor Robert de Niro.
Two were found in Florida and New York City on Friday morning.
Later, two more were discovered in California. Billionaire and Democrat donor Tom Steyer said that a package sent to him had been intercepted at a mail facility in Burlingame, and another addressed to Democrat Senator Kamala Harris was reported in Sacramento.
The incidents come less than two weeks before the US mid-term elections, with politics highly polarised.
The president praised law enforcement for the quick arrest of the suspect, describing the search as looking for a “needle in a haystack”.
“These terrorising acts are despicable and have no place in our country,” he said.
The comments were in stark contrast to Mr. Trump’s tweet earlier in the day, when he suggested the incidents, which he described as “‘Bomb’ stuff”, were slowing Republican “momentum” in early voting.
But Mr. Trump returned to the theme later, accusing US media of exploiting the latest case.
“The media’s constant, unfair coverage, deep hostility and negative attacks… only serve to drive people apart and to undermine healthy debate,” he said at a rally in North Carolina.
“We have seen an effort by the media in recent hours to use the sinister actions of one individual to score political points against me and the Republican party.”
US media reports suggest Mr. Sayoc is a registered Republican who attended some of Mr. Trump’s rallies in 2016 and 2017. However, the president rejected any suggestion that his rhetoric had contributed to the attacks.
“I heard he was a person that preferred me over others. There’s no blame, there’s no anything,” Mr. Trump said.
Former intelligence chief James Clapper, one of the recipients of Friday’s packages, told CNN: “This is definitely domestic terrorism, no question in my mind.”
He said that anyone who had been a critic of President Trump needed to be on the alert and take extra precautions.
“I’m not suggesting a direct cause-and-effect relationship between anything he’s said or done and the distribution of these explosives.
But I do think he bears some responsibility for the coarseness of civility of the dialogue in this country,” he added.
READ ALSO: Foreign Titbits: Mail bombs: FBI investigators check Florida leads
Khashoggi fiancée snubs Trump invitation to White House
The fiancée of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi says she has declined an invitation to the White House from US
President Donald Trump, accusing him of not being sincere about investigating the killing.
Hatice Cengiz told Turkish TV she thought the invitation was aimed at influencing public opinion in the US.
Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul three weeks ago.
Riyadh denies the ruling royal family was involved and blames “rogue agents”.
Saudi Arabia initially denied all knowledge of the journalist’s fate but the Saudi public prosecutor now describes it as premeditated murder.
Mr. Trump has said he is “not satisfied” with the Saudi account. However, while he has floated the possibility of imposing sanctions. he has also stressed the importance of the two countries’ ties.
The president also said it was “possible” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not know about the killing.
Khashoggi had been an outspoken critic of the crown prince, the de facto Saudi ruler.
In comments made on Saturday at security conference in Bahrain, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Mr. Khashoggi’s death in a diplomatic facility “must concern us all”.
He said the United States “does not tolerate this kind of ruthless action to silence Mr. Khashoggi, a journalist, through violence.”
“Failure of any nation to adhere to international norms and the rule of law undermines regional stability at a time when it is needed most,” he added.
On Friday, Turkey said it wanted to extradite 18 Saudis who were arrested in Riyadh in connection with the killing.
Prosecutors preparing the formal request accuse them of “murder by premeditation, monstrous intent or by torture”.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia are not known to have an extradition treaty.
In a tearful television interview on Friday, Ms. Cengiz recounted the day her fiancé vanished, saying she would never have let her partner enter the consulate if she had thought that the “Saudi Arabia authorities would hatch a plot” to kill him.
“I demand that all those involved in this savagery from the highest to the lowest levels are punished and brought to justice,” she told Haberturk TV.
She said she had not been contacted by any Saudi officials but that she was unlikely to go to Saudi Arabia for a funeral, should Khashoggi’s missing body eventually be found.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Riyadh to admit who ordered the killing and where the body is.
