FBI arrests IS supporter for terror plot on US Capitol

Amid escalating tensions over terrorism following a recent terrorist attack in Paris, France, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a supporter of the Islamic State jihadist group for planning a terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol. In France, hackers purporting to be Islamic extremists hacked some 1,000 websites.

CNN reported that a Cincinnati man named Christopher Cornell was arrested Wednesday on charges of plotting to attack Congressmen and U.S. government officials with guns and bombs.

The FBI said that Cornell intended to detonate pipe bombs at and near the Capitol building and use firearms to kill employees and officials trying to escape. According to CNN, he was arrested while making preparations for the attack after purchasing two M-15 rifles with 600 rounds of ammunition. “When they found out Cornell had the weapons, authorities made their move before Cornell could make his,” CNN reported.

He had been put on the U.S. authorities’ watch list after posting tweets in support of the Islamic State under the alias “Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah.”

Meanwhile, cyber security experts said Wednesday that some 1,000 French websites had been attacked by self-purported “cyberjihadists.” The homepages of affected websites of local governments, universities and businesses were covered with messages including “There is only one god, Allah,” and “Death to Charlie.” Calling themselves “cyberjihadist” hackers from North Africa and Mauritania have claimed responsibility for the hacking, threatening to launch more attacks on Thursday.

France-based news agency AFP quoted Francois Paget, an expert with software security company McAfee as saying, “For now it has been more cyber-vandalism than sophisticated, high-level attacks.”