Washington: An influential US lawmaker has said there is no indication that the Chechen brothers - accused in the Boston Marathon terrorist attack - practiced bombing before carrying out the strike.
"We have no indication that they rehearsed it at all. In fact, the younger brother said, at this time, that they did not rehearse it," Congressman Charles Dutch Ruppersberger told the MSNBC news channel, citing the arrested suspect.
Ruppersberger told the news channel after FBI briefed lawmakers, including him, at the Capitol Hill.
Three people died and more than 200 people were injured when two bombs went off in quick succession near the finish line of the Boston Marathon last week.
The police suspect that two Chechen brothers - one a naturalised US citizen and other a lawful permanent resident - were responsible for this "act of terror".
While the elder brother 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev died last week in a police exchange of fire, the younger one Dzhokhar, 19, was arrested a day later. He is injured and is being treated in a Boston hospital.
"From what the information we have right now is that it seems that both brothers were self-radicalised. Those of us who have been in the intelligence community for a while have always been concerned about the lone wolf," he said.
"The only issue I wonder is that it seems to be a little sophisticated to be able to use cell phones. But, again, we`re getting all the information that we can. At this point, it seems that the two brothers and they were self-radicalised," Ruppersberger said.
"As far as the radicalisation (of the two brothers), it seems as if these two brothers were self-radicalised. And the younger brother said that they got their information on how to build the bomb through a magazine called Inspire," the Congressman from Maryland said.
"Inspire is a magazine that is sent throughout the United States. We can`t stop it because of First Amendment rights. And, basically, it gave instructions how to build the bomb that was used in the Boston Marathon bombing," he said.
"Then the information we`ve received about looking at issues internationally and locally at this time and all the information we`re receiving from the younger brother says that they are clearly at this point self-radicalised. Now, we`re still investigating and we`re always looking to get more information," he said.
PTI
