New York man arrested, accused of planning to set off bomb for ISIS

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

last updated 17 June 2015

A New York City college student arrested by U.S. authorities on Saturday stands accused of plotting to set off a pressure cooker bomb in support of Islamic State, court documents say.

Munther Omar Saleh, 20, and another man who has not been identified were arrested after they got out of their car and ran toward a surveillance vehicle that had been tracking their movements, Reuters reports. A federal agent said in court documents that Saleh spent hours online, reading about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and researching how to build a bomb using a pressure cooker. He also posted online messages of support for ISIS and the Charlie Hebdo attack.

The court papers say Saleh was observed by a police officer on successive days in March at the George Washington Bridge, which connects New York and New Jersey, looking around. Officers interviewed him afterwards, and he told them he did not support ISIS. He allowed officers to look at his computer, where investigators found ISIS propaganda, court documents say. The complaint filed against Saleh mentions a third co-conspirator, but that person is not named and it does not say if they have been arrested.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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