NEW YORK, Apr 26: Chechen-born Tsarnaev brothers had plans to attack the iconic Times Square in New York after they shocked the US by twin blasts in Boston last week that killed three persons and wounded more than 200 others.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the Tsarnaev brothers – Tamerlan and Dzhokhar – had additional explosives with which they were planning to create havoc at the crowded Times Square.
Such an information has been obtained by the FBI during the interrogation of Dzhokhar, 19, who was arrested by the police at a Boston neighborhood last Friday. His elder brother was killed in a police exchange of fire last week.
“Last night, we were informed by the FBI that the surviving attacker revealed that New York City was next on their list of targets. He told the FBI, apparently, that he and his brother had intended to drive to New York and designate additional explosives in Times Square,” Bloomberg told reporters at a crowded news conference in New York.
“They had built these additional explosives, and we know they had the capacity to carry out the attacks,” he said.
Police foiled the alleged plan by killing Tamerlan in a shootout and arresting Dzhokhar last week.
If, God forbid, they had arrived in New York City and gone to Times Square, one thing for sure, they would have seen an enormous police presence, but they would not have seen extensive networks of cameras that are part of the security initiative to help police identify suspicious movements, such as packages left unintended on the streets, the Mayor said.
According to the Police Commissioner Kelly, Dzhokhar, who was captured alive, initially told investigators that he and his brother decided after the Boston bombings that would go to New York City to “party.” But they quickly changed their mind. (PTI)
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