Three men charged for ISIS-inspired plot to attack NYC
An ISIS-inspired plot targeting Times Square and the city subways — aimed at killing “thousands” and making “an ocean out of their blood” — has been busted, authorities said Friday.
Three men, including a US citizen, were arrested with the help of an undercover FBI agent, according to the charges against them unsealed Friday.
On May 20, 2016, Talha Haroon, a US citizen from Pakistan, told an undercover agent that Times Square was “a perfect spot to hit them” and suggested that the plan could include a “[d]rive-by, or we surround the whole street and trap them and kill as many as possible,” according to the newly unsealed complaint.
“I wanna kill . . . them in thousands” he allegedly told the undercover. “We have to make a ocean out of their blood .. leave no one standing.”
Haroon also told the undercover agent he planned to travel to the city and discussed executing his planned attacks as soon as that Memorial Day — a day that he said “will change history,” according to the complaint.
Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, a Canadian citizen, also was busted in May 2016 after traveling to New Jersey from Canada and pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in October 2016, according to Manhattan federal prosecutors.
Haroon, a US Citizen Based in Pakistan, was later arrested in Pakistan. A third man, Russell Salic, was arrested in the Philippines. Both are awaiting extradition to the US, the feds said.