The teenage ISIS-inspired bomb suspects planned an attack bigger than the deadly Boston Marathon massacre, federal charging documents revealed.
Ibrahim Kayumi and Emir Balat were charged on Monday with attempting to provide material support to ISIS, use of a weapon of mass destruction, and other crimes.
The pair were arrested on Saturday after throwing a homemade ‘Mother of Satan’ bomb outside the New York City mayor’s mansion during an anti-Islam protest.
Kayumi, 19, blurted out, as he was being arrested Saturday, that ‘ISIS’ was the reason for his conduct, according to the complaint.
Balat, 18, told authorities that he had pledged allegiance to the terrorist organization, and Kayumi asserted that he was affiliated with the Islamic State, the indictment said.
‘All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds! I pledge my allegience [sic] to the Islamic State. Die in your rage yu [sic] kuffar!’ he told investigators while he was in NYPD custody, the complaint said.
‘This isn’t a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet… We take action!’
Officers asked Balat whether he was aiming to accomplish something akin to the bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013, when two pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line, killing three people and wounding hundreds more.
‘No, even bigger,’ Balat replied, according to the complaint. He also noted that the Boston bomber only caused ‘three deaths.’
Barat and Kayumi were also charged with transportation of explosive materials, interstate transportation and receipt of explosives, and unlawful possession of destructive devices.
The two men both have addresses in Pennsylvania, and Balat carried a Turkish government identification card along with his Pennsylvania driver’s license, according to the complaint.
The men’s attorneys were expected at court. Attempts to reach the suspects’ families were not immediately successful.
An automated license plate reader captured the pair entering New York City from New Jersey less than an hour before the attack, according to the complaint.
Their vehicle – registered to one of Balat’s relatives – was discovered Sunday a few blocks from where they were arrested.
A search of the car turned up a ‘hobby fuse’ and a metal can, along with a written list of chemical ingredients and components that could be used to build explosives, the complaint said.
The homemade devices, which did not explode, were hurled Saturday during raucous counterprotests against an anti-Islamic demonstration led by far-right activist and Mamdani critic Jake Lang.
Mamdani and his wife were not in Gracie Mansion at the time of the incident.
Speaking outside the residence Monday morning, Mamdani said Balat and Kayumi ‘traveled from Pennsylvania and attempted to bring violence to New York City.’
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said there are no indications that the men’s alleged activities were connected to the ongoing war in Iran.
But she noted the incident is ‘being investigated as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism.’
Tisch declined to say more about why authorities believe the suspects were motivated by the Islamic State group, a Sunni extremist group. Iran’s population is almost entirely Shiite, the other main religious community within Islam.
While Mamdani and Tisch briefed reporters Monday, Lang heckled from outside the Gracie Mansion gates.
FBI agents raided the family homes of both men in suburban Philadelphia on Sunday.
Barat, whose parents were born in Turkey and reportedly became naturalized US citizens in 2017, lived with his family in a $653,000 home in Langhorne.
Two men and a woman were taken into custody at the 3,200-square-foot, two-story residence, WPVI reported.
At least 10 agents stormed Kayumi’s parents’ $2.25 million home in Newtown on Sunday, footage captured by WCAU showed.
One man was detained at the sprawling 5,800-square-foot home, which boasts six bedrooms and five bedrooms.
Charges have not been brought against the individuals who were detained at the respective residences.
Kayumi’s parents are from Afghanistan and became naturalized US citizens in 2004 and 2009.
The suspected bomber was in Istanbul for multiple weeks in July and August 2024. He also went to Saudi Arabia in March that same year.
Balat also traveled to Turkey multiple times in the past year, with his most recent trip having occurred in January.
He previously visited the county from May 6 to August 26 last year.
Investigators are understood to be looking into the pair’s overseas travel history to known what they have described as ‘terror training grounds.’
Lang’s sparsely attended protest Saturday drew a far larger group of roughly 125 counterdemonstrators.
Amid the faceoff, Balat tossed a jar-sized device that contained the white, crystalline explosive material triacetone triperoxide (TATP) into the crowd, the complaint said.
It also contained an exterior layer of duct-taped nuts and bolts, and a hobby fuse that was reportedly connected to an M80-type firework, investigators said.
The device extinguished itself steps from police officers. According to the complaint, Balat then ran down the block and collected a second, similar device from Kayumi, dropped it near some police officers and tried to run away, the complaint said.
Police tackled Balat and soon arrested him and Kayumi.
TATP has been linked to previous ISIS attacks, including the Paris attacks in 2015.
The scene had grown chaotic even before the devices were thrown. Police said one person involved in the anti-Islam protest, Ian McGinnis, 21, was arrested after pepper-spraying counterprotesters.
McGinnis, of Philadelphia, was released without bond after pleading not guilty Sunday to assault and aggravated harassment in a New York court, records show. A message seeking comment was left Monday for his attorney.
Three others were taken into custody but were released without charges.
After the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, Lang was charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes.
He was later freed from prison as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency.
Lang recently announced that he is running for US Senate in Florida.
Earlier this year, he organized a rally in Minneapolis in support of Trump’s immigration crackdown, drawing an angry crowd of counterprotesters who quickly chased him away.
