The wounded Boston bombing suspect remains in a serious condition as a special interrogation unit stands by.
THE FBI has removed a computer from the US home of a sister of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects while an uncle claims the younger brother was "used" as more details of their family emerges.
Police said she was co-operating with the investigation and was "heartbroken, surprised and upset," though she told reporters she wasn't sure the accusations against her brothers were true.
The woman, identified by local police as Ailina Tsarnaeva, told Federal agents she had not been in contact with her brothers for years, according to Police Director Michael Indri.
"The main concern was to confirm that there was no contact made one way or the other, and I'm confident that the FBI has confirmed that," he said.
Steady gunfire can he heard in new video from the operation to capture Boston marathon suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev. Deborah Gembara reports.
Federal agents searched the home and left with a computer and other electronics.
Early in the day, she spoke through a barely open door to News12 New Jersey and The Star-Ledger newspaper, telling them she was sorry for the families that lost loved ones "the same way I lost my loved one".
"I'm hurt for everyone that's been hurt,'' she said.
An FBI agent enters the apartment building door of Alina Tsarnaeva in West New York, New Jersey. Picture: John Moore/Getty Images/AFP
Her brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police outside Boston.
"He was a great person," the woman said of her dead brother.
"I thought I knew him. I never would have expected that from him. He is a kind and loving man. The cops took his life away just the same way he took others' lives away, if that's even true. At the end of the day, no one knows the truth.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is in hospital after being on the run, described as "armed and dangerous" and suspected of the Boston Marathon bombing. His brother, Tamerlan, was killed during a violent police chase. The two ethnic Chechen brothers came from Dagestan, a Russian republic bordering the province of Chechnya. (AP Photo/vk.com)
"I have no idea what got into them,'' she said.
Indri said the woman was co-operating with the FBI.
"She's heartbroken, surprised and upset like we all are," he said.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was married and had a daughter in the US, according to his aunt. He died during the manhunt. Picture: AP/Julia Malakie
A woman who described herself as a friend of Ailina described a different relationship between the woman and the elder brother.
Vicki Colon said the woman feared him because "he used to beat her".
Colon said she met the two brothers during a visit to Massachusetts a couple years ago.
Suspect 1, in the black cap, and Suspect 2, in the white cap. These pictures were released by the FBI in Boston.
She said the younger brother was very quiet.
Police plan to maintain a 24-hour presence outside Tsarnaev's apartment indefinitely. No threats have been made, but authorities are "concerned" for her safety, Indri said, adding she was pleased by their involvement.
Authorities said she has fully cooperated with federal investigators.
The mother of the Boston bomb suspects says it is all a set-up and her elder son was controlled by the FBI for years. Lily Grimes reports.
Roque went into the sister's apartment at 9pm on Friday. After he left 15 minutes later, he spoke briefly, but declined to discuss the meeting.
"It's not easy for them," he said.
"I don't want to comment too much. This is a human tragedy. My goal as the mayor is to take care of them. They're residents of West New York."
US investigators have told how two suspected pressure cooker bombs exploded in Boston marathon crowds.
Shortly before the FBI arrived at the apartment, Tsarnaev gave a brief interview to reporters through a slightly opened door of her second-floor apartment.
She said she was stunned that her brothers might have been involved in bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 170.
Her plans to speak out come as more details of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother have emerged.
Tamerlan once ranted at a neighbour about Islam and the United States.
His younger brother, Dzhokhar, relished debating people on religion, "then crushing their beliefs with facts."
The older brother sought individual glory in the boxing ring, while the younger excelled as part of a team. Tamerlan "swaggered" through the family home like a "man-of-the-house type," one visitor recalls, while Dzhokhar seemed "very respectful and very obedient" to his mother.
The brothers, now forever linked in the Boston Marathon bombing, in some ways seemed as different as siblings could be. But whatever drove them to allegedly set off two deadly pressure-cooker bombs, their uncle is certain Dzhokhar was not the one pulling the strings.
"He's not been understanding anything. He's a 19-year-old boy," Ruslan Tsarni said of his brother's youngest child, who was clinging to life in a Boston hospital Saturday after a gun battle with police.
"He's been absolutely wasted by his older brother. I mean, he used him. He used him for whatever he's done. For what we see they've done, OK?"
Criminologist James Alan Fox said the uncle's intuition is justified. In cases like this, he said, it is highly unusual for the younger participant - in this case, a sibling - to be the leader.
"I would be surprised," said Fox, the Lipman Professor of Criminology, Law and Public Policy at Boston's Northeastern University. "Very surprised."
Boston Marathon bomb suspect number two is in custody after law enforcement arrested him after a brief stand-off. Fox News
When the bullets began flying Thursday night and 26-year-old Tamerlan went down, his younger brother ran him over - dragging him for about nine metres - before ditching the car and fleeing on foot. After a 24-hour manhunt that shut down most of the Boston metropolitan area, police cornered the gravely-wounded Dzhokhar hiding in a boat in a backyard only blocks from where his brother was taken.
Officials said Dzhokhar was in serious condition, unable to communicate. So, at least for now, investigators and the public are left with an enigma.
The ethnic Chechen family came to the US in 2002, after fleeing troubles in Kyrgyzstan and then Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in Russia's North Caucasus. They settled in a working-class part of Cambridge, where father Anzor Tsarnaev opened an auto shop. He returned to Dagestan about a year ago.
The moment of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's arrest aftera dramatic shootout with police. Picture: via Twitter/Imgur Source: No Source
Luis Vasquez, a candidate for the Cambridge City Council, went to school with Tamerlan and later helped coach Dzhokhar's school soccer team. With the father gone, Vasquez said the older brother assumed a kind of paternal role, at least where the girls in the family were concerned.
"He was very protective of his (younger) sister, Bella," Vasquez said. "He would keep an eye out, making sure she's good, making sure she's not having a hard time."
Vasquez attributed it to "his culture" and "what his family expected out of him."
David Mijares, who trained in boxing with Tamerlan in school and later coached the younger brother in soccer, says his friend opened up about his hardships in Russia. He agreed that Tamerlan felt pressure to be the man of the house.
A Boston SWAT team member takes up position in the search for 19-year-old bombing suspect Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev in Watertown, Massachusetts. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images
"He had to be a man at a very early age," said Mijares, who himself considered Tamerlan a mentor. "That would be, in my opinion, a huge reason for who he was, all serious and no nonsense."
That said, Dzhokhar was very much his own man. While he would tag along to Tamerlan's boxing practices, the younger brother was into wrestling.
In one of his tweets, he complained that his mother was trying to arrange a marriage for him, as she'd done for his sisters.
"She needs to (hash)chillout," he tweeted on July 12. "i'll find my own honey."
Tamerlan preceded his brother at the prestigious Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, which counts celebrities Matt Damon and Ben Affleck among its alumni. But he does not appear to have been a standout student and athlete whose reputation Dzhokhar would have felt pressure to live up to.
Speaking from his home in Makhachkala in Russia's south, the father of the Tsarnaev brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon attack says his children were framed. Deborah Gembara reports.
Anne Kilzer would go to the Tsarnaev home for regular facials from the boys' mother, Zubeidat. She said the older brother was a "macho guy," whereas Dzhokhar seemed more cerebral.
The few times that Tamerlan was there, he would wave his mother off when she tried to introduce him. "He sort of swaggered through," she said. "Sort of a man-of-the-house type."
In a blog entry, Kilzer's daughter, Alyssa, suggested that the mother became increasingly religious as their acquaintance progressed. She began wearing a hijab, the traditional Muslim headscarf.
She said the mother also expressed some rather strident views about the US government. But it was difficult to know who was influencing whom in the household.
Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev posted links to Islamic websites on what appears to be his page on a Russian language social networking site. Lily Grimes reports.
"During this facial session she started quoting a conspiracy theory, telling me that she thought 9/11 was purposefully created by the American government to make America hate Muslims," Kilzer wrote.
"'It's real,'" she said.
"'My son knows all about it. You can read on the internet.'"
Kilzer didn't say which son the mother was talking about. Kilzer was studying in Scotland and could not immediately be reached.
One of the brothers' neighbours, Albrecht Ammon, said he had a bizarre encounter with Tamerlan in a pizza shop about three months ago. The older brother argued with him about US foreign policy, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and religion.
Massachusetts police release thermal photos taken from a helicopter of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lying in a boat. Rough Cut (no reporter narration)
He said Tamerlan referred to the Bible as a "cheap copy" of the Quran and that many of this country's wars "are based upon the Bible - how it's an excuse to invade other countries."
"He had nothing against the American people," Ammon said. "He had something against the American government."
Dzhokhar, on the other hand, was "real cool," Ammon said. "A chill guy."
While his older brother was railing about religion and world politics, Dzhokhar seemed more interested in the HBO series Game of Thrones and other television shows like Breaking Bad.
The two suspects in Boston Marathon bombing have been identified as brothers hailing from Chechnya.
