By IANS/EFE,
Washington : A 29-year-old Moroccan national detained for trying to attack the US Capitol planned to kill around 30 people in a suicide bombing, sources said.
Amine Khalifi considered shooting pedestrians and attacking a synagogue and a restaurant in Washington, according to the WTOP radio station.
Anti-terrorism officials said the Moroccan visited the restaurant and even asked employees at what time it had the most diners.
Khalifi finally focused on planning a suicide attack at the Capitol, where he intended to kill 30 people after shooting security personnel at the entrance and infiltrating inside to detonate a suicide bomb vest.
The man was arrested Friday by FBI agents in Washington when he was on his way to commit a suicide attack.
Khalifi, who lived in Virginia and was unemployed, had been under surveillance by security agents for a year, who said he tried to create homemade explosives that could be detonated from a distance using a cell phone.
When he was arrested near the Capitol, Khalifi was wearing a vest packed with explosives.
According to the department of justice, Khalifi acted alone and had no connections to any terrorist organisation, though authorities had been investigating him for some time for his “extremist” views.
Last year, at least 20 people were arrested in the US on charges related to terrorism, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Most of the arrests have involved “lone wolf extremists” who use the internet to get directions on making bombs, said FBI Director Robert Mueller.