The George Washington Bridge.(Photo: Mel Evans, AP)
NEW YORK — Federal authorities have arrested a New York college student who plotted to detonate a pressure cooker bomb on behalf of the Islamic State terror group, according to published reports.
Munther Omar Saleh, 20, a student at the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology, told a government informant that he was going to "try to do an op" in New York, the
Daily News reports court papers saying. Vaughn is a private college specializing in aviation and engineering near LaGuardia Airport in Queens.
Via Twitter, Saleh openly supported Islamic State activities, including the
Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris in January and the beheading of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, CBS New York reports court papers saying.
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According to ABC 7 in New York, he tweeted that he feared al-Qaeda "could be getting too moderate."
Investigators pulled over Saleh's green Jeep on a highway in Queens on June 7 and arrested him after he tried to attack them, CBS New York reported. He appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court on Saturday.
"Saleh emailed himself information from the Internet regarding the construction of a pressure cooker bomb," the
Daily News quotes the Brooklyn Federal Court complaint as stating. Boston Marathon bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev used such explosive devices to kill three people in April 2013.
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The complaint indicates that on May 10, "Saleh performed Internet searches for the terms 'watch,' 'casio,' and 'vacuum' … these searches reflect Saleh's efforts to identify and obtain components required to create an explosive device."
On May 28, Saleh was researching information about New York City tourist attractions and landmarks, and investigators also followed him to a spy shop in Queens, where he examined equipment, the
Daily News reports the complaint saying.
Federal authorities became curious about the student after spotting him two days in a row loitering on the George Washington Bridge, which connects New York and New Jersey, according to CBS.
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