The older of the two Chechen brothers suspected of detonating two bombs at the Boston Marathon became radicalized since moving to the US a decade ago, it was revealed today.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, the older brother of 19-year-old Dzhokhar, who is currently the target of a massive all-out manhunt in Boston at its suburbs, was shot dead Thursday evening in an armed confrontation at MIT.
Officials say the two siblings, refugees from the Caucasus region, were the men behind the horrific terrorist attack that took the lives of three and left 176 injured during the Boston Marathon Monday.
In the hours since the Tsarnaevs have been identified as the prime suspects in the bombings, a picture has begun to emerge of the older brother as a man who felt like an outsider in the US and had recently become radicalized.
The 26-year-old had a profile on YouTube channel since August 2012. Five months ago, Tamerlan created a playlist dedicated to terrorism.
Named simply ‘Terrorists,’ the playlist included a pair of videos, which are now no longer available.
Although most of the clips in the channel are ordinary music videos, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s YouTube channel shows signs that he had been drawn to radical Islamism.
Among the songs on his playlists was one called ‘I will dedicate my life to Jihad.' He also featured videos recorded by recent converts to Islam.
Both he and his brothers are believed to have military experience. NBC News learned that counterterrorism officials were examining possible links between them and the Islamic Jihad Union of central Asia.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an avid boxer and spent a lot of time training for competitions, according to Johannes Hirn, who posted a photo essay entitled ‘Will Box for Passport’ on his page on Photoshelter.com.
Representing New England in 2010 National Golden Gloves competition in Utah, Tamerlan Tsarnaev dreamed of being ‘selected for the US Olympic team and be [a] naturalized American.’
‘Unless his native Chechnya becomes independent, Tamerlan says he would rather compete for the United States than for Russia,’ reads the caption to one of the pictures that shows Tamerlan during his workout.
Tamerlan, who was affiliated with a Team Lowell club, won the Rocky Marciano Trophy as New England Golden Gloves heavyweight champion in 2010.
Tsarnaev boxed in a 2004 tournament as part of the Golden Gloves tournament, telling The Lowell Sun newspaper at the time: 'I like the USA.'
He said that his first love was music, and that he played the piano and violin.
Tamerlan studied accounting as a part-time student. at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. School officials say that the 26-year-old attended classes there for three semesters: fall 2006, spring 2007 and fall 2008.
According to a profile that appeared in a Boston University magazine in 2010, Tamerlan wanted to become an engineer.
Spokeswoman Patricia Brady said Friday they had little information on Tsarnaev other than that he studied accounting at the Boston school.
The Tsarnaev family, which also included two daughters, Bella and Amina, had the status of refugees at the time they moved to Makhachkala, the capital of Dagistan.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev reportedly lived for years in Kazakhstan before coming to the US as a refugee. He became a legal permanent resident in 2007, the officials said.
Despite spending most of his life in the US and being involved in sports, Rt.com reports that he claimed to have 'a single American friend.'
'I don't understand them,' reads a caption below a set of pictures showing Tamerlan obtained by the news site.
The elder Tsaranev, described by his uncle Friday as a 'loser,' was arrested in 2009 for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, who described him in an interview as a 'very nice man,' according to the City of Cambridge Police Department.
The family's second run-in with the law came in June 2012, when the boys' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, was arrested for stealing $1624 in clothes from Lord and Taylor
In the aftermath of his older son’s death during a gunfight with police, the father of the suspects said that his slain son was a devout Muslim.
‘Tamerlan says he doesn't drink or smoke anymore: “God said no alcohol.” A muslim, he says: "There are no values anymore," and worries that 'people can't control themselves,”’ Anzor Tsarnaev told the The Associated Press by telephone from the Russian city of Makhachkala.
Speaking of his younger son still on the loose, Mr Tsarnaev said Dzhokhar is a smart and accomplished young man.
‘My son is a true angel,’ Mr Tsarnaev said. ‘Dzhokhar is a second-year medical student in the U.S. He is such an intelligent boy. We expected him to come on holidays here.’
In May of 2011, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, then a senior at a prestigious high school attended by Mat Damon and Ben Affleck, was awarded a $2,500 scholarship from the city of Cambridge, Mass., to pursue higher education.
Now, Tsarnaev is on the run, described as "armed and dangerous" and suspected of the Boston Marathon bombing.
Tsarnaev, 19, and his older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed during a violent night in Cambridge, had been living together on Norfolk Street in Cambridge. An uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., told The Associated Press that the men lived together near Boston and have been in the United States for about a decade.
They came from the Russian region near Chechnya, which has been plagued by an Islamic insurgency stemming from separatist wars.
Speaking to reporters Friday afternoon, an emotional Tsarni said he has never known his nephews to bear any ill will towards the United States, but insisted that his family has nothing to do with his brother's family.
'I respect this country, I love this country,' Tsarni told the media in lightly accented English.
'I think what's behind it is being losers,' Mr Tsarni said when asked about a possible motive behind the bombings.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, the older brother of 19-year-old Dzhokhar, who is currently the target of a massive all-out manhunt in Boston at its suburbs, was shot dead Thursday evening in an armed confrontation at MIT.
Officials say the two siblings, refugees from the Caucasus region, were the men behind the horrific terrorist attack that took the lives of three and left 176 injured during the Boston Marathon Monday.
In the hours since the Tsarnaevs have been identified as the prime suspects in the bombings, a picture has begun to emerge of the older brother as a man who felt like an outsider in the US and had recently become radicalized.
The 26-year-old had a profile on YouTube channel since August 2012. Five months ago, Tamerlan created a playlist dedicated to terrorism.
Named simply ‘Terrorists,’ the playlist included a pair of videos, which are now no longer available.
Although most of the clips in the channel are ordinary music videos, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s YouTube channel shows signs that he had been drawn to radical Islamism.
Among the songs on his playlists was one called ‘I will dedicate my life to Jihad.' He also featured videos recorded by recent converts to Islam.
Both he and his brothers are believed to have military experience. NBC News learned that counterterrorism officials were examining possible links between them and the Islamic Jihad Union of central Asia.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an avid boxer and spent a lot of time training for competitions, according to Johannes Hirn, who posted a photo essay entitled ‘Will Box for Passport’ on his page on Photoshelter.com.
Representing New England in 2010 National Golden Gloves competition in Utah, Tamerlan Tsarnaev dreamed of being ‘selected for the US Olympic team and be [a] naturalized American.’
‘Unless his native Chechnya becomes independent, Tamerlan says he would rather compete for the United States than for Russia,’ reads the caption to one of the pictures that shows Tamerlan during his workout.
Tamerlan, who was affiliated with a Team Lowell club, won the Rocky Marciano Trophy as New England Golden Gloves heavyweight champion in 2010.
Tsarnaev boxed in a 2004 tournament as part of the Golden Gloves tournament, telling The Lowell Sun newspaper at the time: 'I like the USA.'
He said that his first love was music, and that he played the piano and violin.
Tamerlan studied accounting as a part-time student. at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. School officials say that the 26-year-old attended classes there for three semesters: fall 2006, spring 2007 and fall 2008.
According to a profile that appeared in a Boston University magazine in 2010, Tamerlan wanted to become an engineer.
Spokeswoman Patricia Brady said Friday they had little information on Tsarnaev other than that he studied accounting at the Boston school.
The Tsarnaev family, which also included two daughters, Bella and Amina, had the status of refugees at the time they moved to Makhachkala, the capital of Dagistan.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev reportedly lived for years in Kazakhstan before coming to the US as a refugee. He became a legal permanent resident in 2007, the officials said.
Despite spending most of his life in the US and being involved in sports, Rt.com reports that he claimed to have 'a single American friend.'
'I don't understand them,' reads a caption below a set of pictures showing Tamerlan obtained by the news site.
The elder Tsaranev, described by his uncle Friday as a 'loser,' was arrested in 2009 for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, who described him in an interview as a 'very nice man,' according to the City of Cambridge Police Department.
The family's second run-in with the law came in June 2012, when the boys' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, was arrested for stealing $1624 in clothes from Lord and Taylor
In the aftermath of his older son’s death during a gunfight with police, the father of the suspects said that his slain son was a devout Muslim.
‘Tamerlan says he doesn't drink or smoke anymore: “God said no alcohol.” A muslim, he says: "There are no values anymore," and worries that 'people can't control themselves,”’ Anzor Tsarnaev told the The Associated Press by telephone from the Russian city of Makhachkala.
Speaking of his younger son still on the loose, Mr Tsarnaev said Dzhokhar is a smart and accomplished young man.
‘My son is a true angel,’ Mr Tsarnaev said. ‘Dzhokhar is a second-year medical student in the U.S. He is such an intelligent boy. We expected him to come on holidays here.’
In May of 2011, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, then a senior at a prestigious high school attended by Mat Damon and Ben Affleck, was awarded a $2,500 scholarship from the city of Cambridge, Mass., to pursue higher education.
Now, Tsarnaev is on the run, described as "armed and dangerous" and suspected of the Boston Marathon bombing.
Tsarnaev, 19, and his older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed during a violent night in Cambridge, had been living together on Norfolk Street in Cambridge. An uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., told The Associated Press that the men lived together near Boston and have been in the United States for about a decade.
They came from the Russian region near Chechnya, which has been plagued by an Islamic insurgency stemming from separatist wars.
Speaking to reporters Friday afternoon, an emotional Tsarni said he has never known his nephews to bear any ill will towards the United States, but insisted that his family has nothing to do with his brother's family.
'I respect this country, I love this country,' Tsarni told the media in lightly accented English.
'I think what's behind it is being losers,' Mr Tsarni said when asked about a possible motive behind the bombings.
Source: DailyMail
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