Washington: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Wednesday a US man they say was inspired by the actions of the Islamic State (IS) group to devise a plot to detonate bombs at the US Capitol, authorities said.
The suspect, identified as Christopher Lee Cornell of Cincinnati, Ohio, faces charges of attempting to kill a US government official, Xinhua reported.
Cornell allegedly planned to set off pipe bombs in the Capitol and then shoot at lawmakers and others as they sought to flee after the blasts, ABC News report said citing government documents.
An informant alerted the FBI several months ago about a person who was expressing support for jihad on Twitter under the alias “Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah,” according to the documents.
“I believe that we should just wage jihad under our own orders and plan attacks and everything,” Cornell told the informant in an online message in August, the FBI said.
“I believe we should meet up and make our own group in alliance with the Islamic State here and plan operations ourselves,” Cornell allegedly wrote.