Zubeidat Tsarnaeva press conference: “America took my kids away from me”

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the Boston marathon bombers, says she regrets that her family emigrated to the US, more than 10 years ago.

At a news conference in the Russian republic of Dagestan, where she now lives, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said America had taken her children away from her.

The Boston bombers’ mother also reiterated she was sure her sons were not involved in the attack.

It is being reported that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was added to a terrorism database 18 months ago at the CIA’s request.

Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded when two devices exploded at the Boston marathon on 15 April.

“I would prefer not to have lived in America. Why did I go there?” Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said at Thursday’s news conference in Makhachkala, Dagestan.

“I thought America would protect us. America took my kids away from me… I’m sure my kids were not involved in anything.”

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed a few days after the bombing during a shootout with police.

His younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was captured and charged in connection with the attack.

The suspects’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev, has said he will travel to the US on Thursday or Friday. The family wants to take Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body back to Russia.

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, 45, has said she is still undecided whether to go, AP news agency reports, because she was charged with shoplifting in the US last year and fears arrest if she returns.

In questioning from his hospital bedside, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being treated for gunshot wounds, he has reportedly said he and his brother Tamerlan were angry about the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2012, Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent six months with relatives in Dagestan, which has an Islamist militant insurgency.

But congressmen said on Wednesday after closed-door briefings that the brothers are not believed to have had direct contact with a militant organization.

Meanwhile, there are questions as to whether the authorities did enough to prevent the bombings.

US media report that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was added in 2011 to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), at the request of the CIA.

The database contains as many as 745,000 entries; individuals on that list are not necessarily on the so-called terrorist watch list.

The FBI investigated after Russian authorities alerted US counterparts to the activities of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, saying he had become a follower of radical Islam.

About six months before the CIA requested his name be added to TIDE, the FBI asked the Russians for more information about the elder brother but received none, and closed its investigation.

US officials said earlier that their intelligence community had no information about threats to the marathon ahead of last week’s attacks.

After a classified briefing at the House intelligence committee on Wednesday, Democratic Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger said he believed the FBI was not at fault.