New York - Seorang agen Biro Investigasi Federal Amerika Serikat, FBI yang menyamar, telah menggagalkan rencana militan untuk mengebom target-target di New York, AS pada tahun 2016. Target serangan tersebut termasuk kereta bawah tanah dan Times Square.

Tiga orang telah didakwa atas keterlibatan dalam perencanaan serangan-serangan yang dilakukan atas nama kelompok ISIS tersebut. Serangan tersebut rencananya akan dilakukan saat bulan suci Ramadan tahun 2016.

Satu dari tiga orang yang ditangkap adalah Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, seorang pemuda Kanada berumur 19 tahun yang membeli bahan-bahan pembuat bom. Dia ditangkap setelah pergi ke Amerika Serikat dan telah mengaku bersalah atas dakwaan "pelanggaran terorisme".

Dua orang lainnya adalah Talha Haroon, pemuda AS berumur 19 tahun yang tinggal di Pakistan, yang diduga berencana ikut serta dalam serangan tersebut, serta Russell Salic, pria Filipina berumur 37 tahun yang diduga menyediakan dana untuk serangan tersebut.

Serangan-serangan tersebut digagalkan berkat bantuan seorang agen FBI yang menyamar sebagai pendukung ISIS, yang berkomunikasi dengan ketiga tersangka. Haroon dan Salic telah ditangkap di luar negeri dan sedang dalam proses untuk diekstradisi ke AS.

"El Bahnasawy dan Haroon mengidentifikasi sejumlah lokasi dan event di New York City dan sekitarnya sebagai target rencana serangan, termasuk sistem kereta bawah tanah New York City, Times Square dan tempat-tempat konser tertentu," demikian statemen kantor Pjs Jaksa Joon Kim di Manhattan seperti dilansir kantor berita AFP, Sabtu (7/10/2017).

Disebutkan bahwa El Bahnasawy mengirimkan gambar Times Square kepada agen FBI yang menyamar tersebut, seraya mengatakan "kita serius memerlukan sebuah bom mobil untuk menyerang itu."

Sedangkan Haroon mengatakan pada agen FBI tersebut, bahwa kereta bawah tanah akan menjadi target "sempurna" dan bahwa rompi bom bunuh diri bisa diledakkan setelah para penyerang mengeluarkan amunisi mereka.

Salic juga berkomunikasi dengan agen FBI tersebut, dan kemudian mengirimkan dana sekitar US$ 423 untuk mendanai serangan-serangan tersebut dan berjanji akan mengirimkan lebih banyak lagi.

An ISIS-inspired terror plot targeting Times Square and the city’s subways — aimed at killing “thousands’’ and making “an ocean out of their blood’’ — has been foiled, authorities said Friday.

A trio of twisted wannabe terrorists, including a US citizen, were planning to strike the city over the summer of 2016, during the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan, officials said.

“NY Needs to fall. It’s a must,” said Talha Haroon, a 19-year-old US citizen living in Pakistan, that May, according to court documents.

Fortunately, Haroon made the proclamation to an undercover agent — and now all three men have been busted on terror charges, the feds said.

In the spring of 2016, Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, a 19-year-old Canadian, and Haroon began planning the attack over messaging apps with the undercover posing as an ISIS supporter, according to the newly unsealed complaint.

They were getting help from Russell Salic, a 37-year-old living in the Philippines who wired money to the US to fund the attack, the papers said.

On May 1, 2016, El Bahnasawy allegedly sent the undercover agent maps of the Big Apple subway system — identifying lines they could blow up with explosives.

“The 2 subway routes we will blow up will be the purple one and the green one,” he told the undercover agent, referring to the No. 7 train and the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 trains from 103rd Street to 33rd Street, according to court documents.

A few days later, Haroon told the agent the subway was the “perfect” target — and they should gun down as many straphangers as possible, including “women or kids,” the complaint said.

“When we run out of bullets, we let the vests go off,” he said, according to prosecutors.

They also set their sights on Times Square.

“We seriously need a car bomb at times square. . Look at these crowds of people!” El Bahnasawy allegedly wrote to the undercover agent on May 12, 2016.


The picture of the map that El Bahnasawy, 19, of Mississauga, Canada, sent to the undercover FBI describing his plan of attack for the NYC subway.

Haroon agreed that the Crossroads of the World was “a perfect spot to hit them” and suggested that the plan could include either a drive-by “or we surround the whole street and trap them and kill as many as possible,” the complaint said.

“I wanna kill . . . them in thousands” Haroon allegedly told the undercover. “We have to make a ocean out of their blood .. leave no one standing.”

The hydrogen peroxide El Bahnasawy bought in preparation for the attacks.

It wasn’t just talk, according to the complaint.

El Bahnasawy, while in Canada, purchased an array of bomb-making materials for use in the planned attacks, including approximately 40 pounds of hydrogen peroxide, batteries, Christmas lights, thermometers, and aluminum foil — all of which could be used in making explosive devices, authorities said.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan, Haroon told the undercover agent that he had traveled to meet with an explosives expert “for the purpose of obtaining additional information to be used in building bombs for the planned NYC attacks,” the feds said.

Haroon told the undercover that they would need “perming cords,” or detonator cords, adding that El Bahnasawy was acquiring “all that’s needed,” according to the complaint.

El Bahnasawy traveled to New Jersey on May 21 in preparation for the attack and was arrested. He pleaded guilty to terrorism charges Oct. 13, 2016 and is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 12, 2017.

Haroon was arrested on September 2016 in Pakistan, while Salic was busted in April 2017 in the Philippines. Both are awaiting extradition to the US, the feds said.