NY police say man confesses in firebomb on mosque NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City man confessed on Tuesday to a series of Molotov cocktail attacks that hit a mosque and a Hindu place of worship and unsettled civic leaders concerned that the actions might portend violent religious bigotry. Police brought the suspect in on Tuesday as a "person on interest" in the Sunday night attacks and he confessed after questioning, police said. "The individual is implicating himself in each of the five firebombing cases, citing personal grievances with each location," said police spokesman Paul Browne. The arson attacks were being investigated as possible hate crimes and drew condemnation from religious and civic leaders of various backgrounds who joined New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly for a news conference before the confession was reported. Fear mongering about Islam and other American minorities have ripped this country apart ... We are all affected when this hate explodes," said Cyrus McGoldrick of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group. Police declined to identify the suspect, who was picked up based on eyewitness reports and a surveillance video that may have placed his car at the scene of at least two of the five places that were firebombed, police said. One of the firebombs hit the mosque entrance at the Imam al-Khoei Foundation, a Shiite organization in the New York City borough of Queens while some 75 to 80 people were inside. Another hit a private home where Hindu services are held. A convenience store and two homes were also damaged, one seriously by fire. Two Molotov cocktails that hit the mosque left shards of glass and smoke damage. "When everyone else was enjoying their New Year's Day, this villain comes in and wants to make life miserable for us," said Muhsin Alidina, a program coordinator at the Islamic center who was in the mosque at the time of the attack. "Thank goodness it was also raining, so presumably it took away some of the force," Alidina said. The suspect's grievances with the convenience store may have started on December 27 when a clerk confronted a man thought to have being trying to steal a Starbucks frappuccino, police said. When they were pushing him out of the store, he said words to the effect of, 'We're going to get even. We're going to get back at you,'" Kelly said before the confession was reported. Starbucks frappuccino bottles were used in at least four of the five Molotov attacks, police said. Before the reported confession, Kelly had promised an aggressive investigation. Reporting by Edith Honan; Writing by Daniel Trotta