Times Square Attack Planned by Boston Bombing Suspects, Authorities Say

The suspects in deadly bombing at the Boston Marathon also planned to attack Times Square in New York, authorities announced Thursday.

“The surviving attacker revealed that New York City was next on their list of targets,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during an afternoon news conference. “He told the FBI, apparently, that he and his brother had intended to drive to New York and designate additional explosives in Times Square.”

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators from his hospital bed that he and his older brother had decided spontaneously Thursday night to drive to New York and launch an attack with their five pipe bombs and a pressure-cooker bomb like the ones that blew up at the marathon.

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The plan fell apart after the Tsarnaev brothers were intercepted by police in a stolen car and got into a fierce gun battle that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead, Kelly said.

“We don’t know if we would have been able to stop the terrorists had they arrived here from Boston,” Bloomberg said. “We’re just thankful that we didn’t have to find out that answer.”

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Tamerlan had come under scrutiny from the FBI, the CIA and Russian intelligence well before the Boston attack. The CIA had added Tamerlan’s name to a terrorist database 18 months ago, after Russian intelligence flagged him as a possible Muslim radical, a U.S. official told Miller Thursday.