I.S. plot to attack NY subway, Times Square foiled

NEW YORK: An undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agent helped thwart a jihadist plot to attack targets, including the city’s subway and Times Square, authorities announced in unsealing the charges on Friday.

Three people have been charged with involvement in the planned attacks, which were to be carried out in the name of the Islamic State group during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan last month.

The 2015 attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris and another on the metro in Belgium the following year served as inspiration for the planned killings here.

Those attacks were both claimed by IS.

Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, a 19-year-old Canadian who purchased bomb-making materials and was arrested after travelling to the United States, has pled guilty to “terrorism offences”, the statement said.

Talha Haroon, a 19-year-old American citizen living in Pakistan, allegedly planned to take part in the attacks, while Russell Salic of the Philippines, 37, allegedly provided funds for the operation.

The attacks were thwarted with the help of an undercover FBI agent posing as an IS supporter who communicated with the three plotters.

Haroon and Salic have been arrested abroad, and their extradition to the US is pending.

“El Bahnasawy and Haroon identified multiple locations and events in New York as targets of the planned attacks, including the subway system, Times Square and certain concert venues,” the statement said. AFP