People observe a moment of silence in honour of the victims in Boston Monday. AP

RICHARD A OPPEL Jr., MICHAEL COOPER & WILLIAM K RASHBAUM

The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was charged Monday with "using a weapon of mass destruction" that resulted in three deaths, according to documents filed in federal court.

The suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was charged by federal prosectors as he lay in a bed at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, officials said.

Tsarnaev was charged with one count of "using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction" against persons and property within the United States resulting in death, and one count of "malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death." If he is convicted, the charges could carry the death penalty.

During the bedside arraignment, a magistrate judge advised Tsarnaev of his rights and the charges against him, according to court papers.

The affidavit accompanying the complaint says the explosive devices  which it describes as "low-grade explosives housed in pressure cookers" that also contained "metallic BB's and nails"  were placed near metal barriers along Boylston Street, where hundreds of spectators were watching the marathon runners as they approached the finish line.

In chilling detail, taken from surveillance video, the affidavit describes how a man it refers to as Bomber Two, which it identifies as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, walks down Boylston Street toward the finish line with the thumb of his right hand hooked under the strap of his knapsack, and a cellphone in his left hand.

"He then can be seen apparently slipping his knapsack onto the ground," the affidavit said.

Video from the nearby Forum restaurant shows the bomber remaining in place, checking his cellphone, and even appearing to take a picture with it, the papers said. Then he appears to look at his phone, and speak on it.

"A few seconds after he finishes the call, the large crowd of people around him can be seen reacting to the first explosion," the court papers said.

"He walks away without his knapsack, having left it on the ground where he had been standing," the court papers said. "Approximately 10 seconds later, an explosion occurs in the location where Bomber Two had placed his knapsack."

Acted alone at behest of brother, teen tells officials

DZHOKHAR Tsarnaev has told US investigators that he acted on behalf of his elder brother Tamerlan and no foreign terror group was behind them, according to a media report.

Quoting unnamed official sources, having access to the ongoing interrogation of Dzhokhar, CNN said preliminary interviews with him indicated the two brothers fit the classification of self-radicalised jihadists.

In his preliminary interrogation, through written statements, as he can't speak now, Dzhokhar is believed to have said his brother  who was killed last week in a shootout with the police  wanted to defend Islam from attack.

"The government source cautioned that the interviews were preliminary, and that Tsarnaev's account needs to be checked out and followed up on by investigators," CNN reported.

Based on the information it obtained from official sources, CNN claimed that Dzhokhar has told investigators that no international terrorist groups were behind them.

According to the news channel, the two brothers were probably motivated by religious extremism, but had no direct links with Islamic terrorist groups.

In a similar report, CBS news said Dzhokhar is cooperating with authorities and investigating officials have not found any evidence of ties to terror groups.

Indian attorney to prosecute Boston bomber in court

Boston: TWO veteran anti-terrorism prosecutors, including an Indian-American, have been entrusted with the responsibility to nail the lone surviving Chechen-origin Boston bombings suspect in the high-profile case.

The US Justice Department said the case is being prosecuted by the Assistant US Attorneys William Weinreb and Aloke Chakravarty from the Anti-Terrorism and National Security Unit of the US Attorney's Office for District of Massachusetts.

A graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Emory Law School, Chakravarty is an Assistant US Attorney for Massachusetts.

Over the past 15 years, Chakravarty has been a prosecutor in different contexts  as an Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County, in the Criminal Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office, for the US Department of Justice, and for the UN at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

He has also served in Washington DC as Assistant General Counsel at the FBI. PTI

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