A Moroccan immigrant was arrested Friday as he tried to carry out an Al Qaeda suicide bombing at the US Capitol under the watch of the FBI in a sting operation, officials said.
The FBI said it conducted the undercover operation as part of a longstanding terrorism probe of the suspect, who was arrested blocks from the Capitol building as he planned to detonate what he believed to be live explosives in a vest he wore.
Both the explosives and a MAC-10 automatic gun were given to him by undercover federal agents, who had first rendered them inoperable, according to court documents.
Because of that, the incident “posed no threat to the public,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
The justice department identified the man as Amine El Khalifi, a 29-year-old immigrant from Morocco living illegally in the US state of Virginia, which borders the capital Washington. “Amine El Khalifi sought to blow himself up in the US Capitol Building,” US attorney Neil MacBride said in a statement.
“El Khalifi allegedly believed he was working with Al Qaeda and devised the plot, the targets and the methods on his own,” the statement said.
According to court documents, Khalafi attended a meeting in Arlington, Virginia, in January 2011 which included a “confidential human source” who reported to the FBI that Khalifi wanted to join an effort to stage attacks on US soil.