The chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security said Sunday he thinks 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the two brothers suspected in last week’s Boston Marathon bombing, may have been trained by a terrorist organization in Chechnya.
“I personally believe that this man received training when he was over there,” Rep. Michael T. McCaul, Texas Republican, said in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He radicalized from 2010 to 2011.”
Mr. McCaul, citing the pressure-cooker bombs used in the marathon attacks, said, “You don’t learn that overnight.”
The 26-year-old Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was taken into custody Friday after a massive manhunt. Authorities have since reported that records show the older brother, a Muslim, traveled for six months last year to Chechnya, where Islamic jihadist rebels are engaged in a decades-long conflict with Russia.
The Tsarnaev family is originally from Chechnya.
• David Eldridge can be reached at deldridge@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.