Updated 3:25 p.m. The Washington Post, citing an Associated Press report, identifies the suspect as Amine el-Khalifi, 29, and says he was an illegal alien who overstayed a visa issued many years ago.
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A man of Moroccan descent was arrested Friday on his way to carry out a suicide bombing at the U.S. Capitol Hill building, Fox News reports. The attack did not present any serious danger though, as the FBI had been monitoring the suspect for quite some time.
The man believed to be in his 30s, thought that he was carrying out an attack on behalf of al-Qaida, the report says, and he was aided by FBI agents posing as al-Qaida members. He was apprehended while driving to the target, following a short stop at a Washington, D.C. mosque to pray. A senior government source told Fox that the scenario was "all very controlled," while Capitol Hill police released a statement saying, "at no time was the public or congressional community in any danger."
The case is being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Virginia, the Washington Post reports, and the office confirmed "that there has been an arrest of a suspect in Washington, D.C., in connection with a terrorism investigation."
The attempted attack comes on the heels of other recent terrorist plots in the Washington, D.C. area. In October 2010, Virginian Farooque Ahmed was apprehended after a plot to attack the Metrorail system. A self-radicalized Massachusetts man, Rezwan Ferdaus, was arrested in September for plotting to fly an explosive drone into the Pentagon or Capitol building. And last October, federal agents disrupted an Iranian government-tied plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington and bomb the local Israeli and Saudi embassies.