Wounded bomber's anti-US messages

[PAULSTANL3Y]

Wounded bomber's anti-US messages

Date June 29, 2013

Boston: Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev scrawled anti-American messages inside the boat where he lay wounded after a shoot-out with police, according to a federal indictment lodged in Boston on Thursday.

The 30-count indictment contains the bombing charges, punishable by the death penalty, that were brought in April against the 19-year-old Tsarnaev, including use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill. It also contains new charges covering the killing of a police officer and a carjacking during the getaway attempt that left Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, dead.

Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded by two bombs that exploded near the finish line of the marathon on April 15. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured four days later, hiding in a boat parked in a backyard.

According to the indictment, he scrawled messages on the inside of the vessel that said, among other things, ''The US government is killing our innocent civilians'', ''I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished'', and ''We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all.''

The Tsarnaev brothers had roots in the turbulent Russian regions of Dagestan and Chechnya, which have become recruiting grounds for Muslim extremists. They had been living in the US for about a decade.

But the indictment made no mention of any larger conspiracy beyond the brothers, and no reference to any direct overseas contacts with extremists.

Instead, the indictment suggests the internet played an important role in the suspects' radicalisation.

Before the attack, according to the indictment, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev downloaded on to his computer the summer 2010 issue of Inspire, an online English-language magazine published by al-Qaeda. The issue detailed how to make bombs from pressure cookers, explosive powder from fireworks and shrapnel.

He also downloaded extremist Muslim literature, including ''Defence of the Muslim Lands, the First Obligation After Imam,'' which advocates ''violence designed to terrorise the perceived enemies of Islam,'' the indictment said.

Another tract downloaded included a foreword by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American propagandist for al-Qaeda who was killed in a US drone strike in 2011.

US Attorney Carmen Ortiz of Massachusetts said Attorney-General Eric Holder would decide whether to pursue the death penalty.

AP