Suspect in bomb plot sought to kill soldiers

A U.S. citizen from Pakistan who was arrested Wednesday in an alleged plot to blow up train stations in Washington's Metro system wanted to fight and kill Americans and coalition forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to new details of the plot released Thursday.

Farooque Ahmed, 34, told a person he believed to be a terrorist operative that he wanted to become a martyr, according to details in a search warrant for his home in Ashburn, Va., unsealed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The operative, who was working undercover with the FBI, told Ahmed to gather information on specific locations in the Washington, D.C., area in preparation for terrorist attacks. Ahmed believed he was helping al-Qaida carry out the attacks, the search warrant states.

The warrant also revealed that Ahmed was working with "an associate." The FBI declined to comment Thursday on questions regarding who the associate was and what became of him or her.

"In January 2010, the FBI learned that Ahmed and an associate were inquiring about making contact with a terrorist organization in order to participate in jihad by traveling overseas to fight coalition forces in Afghanistan and/or Pakistan," states the search warrant, which is dated October 26.

Ahmed, who had been living in the United States since 1993, was taken into custody Wednesday after being under FBI surveillance since April for allegedly plotting to blow up Metro trains and cause mass causalities in the Metrorail system. He is scheduled to appear in federal court in Alexandria, Va., on Friday afternoon.

According to the Justice Department, he participated in surveillance and video recording at the Arlington Cemetery, Court House, Pentagon City, and Crystal City stations.

The search warrant states that Ahmed used a mobile phone video camera to record images of the train stations. According to the warrant, Ahmed was joined by his associate to video record the Arlington Cemetery station.

Ahmed told the person he believed was a terrorist operative that he wanted to bomb the Crystal City Metro station so he could kill as many U.S. military personnel as possible, the warrant states. He offered to provide the would-be bombers with Metro fare cards and to conduct surveillance on the Crystal City station.

Ahmed also said he might be willing to travel overseas to conduct jihad in January after he completed the Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in November.

The warrant also states that Ahmed said he trained using various firearms and that he had studied martial arts for four years. The FBI believed that Ahmed was using firearms to train "for his ultimate goal of traveling to Afghanistan to fight and kill Americans," adding that he might also train and purchase weapons for members of al-Qaida.

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