Tsarnaev admitted to terror plot in note, sources say

Boston bombings suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev reportedly took responsibility for last month’s gruesome attacks in a note left in the boat where he was hiding from authorities before being apprehended.

In the note, the younger Tsarnaev wrote that he didn’t mourn the death of his brother, Tamerlan, and that the bombings were in retaliation for Muslims killed at the hands of the US military in Afghanistan and Iraq.

News of the note was first reported by CBS on Thursday. The US media outlet cited sources close to the investigation.

Tsarnaev apparently scribbled the message with a marker he found inside the boat — which was parked in a residential backyard — while he was hiding and bleeding from a gunshot wound sustained in a shootout with police.

In the note, the younger Tsarnaev said he didn’t mourn his brother’s death because Tamerlan had become a martyr in paradise, where Dzhokar expected to join him soon.

He also wrote that the Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three and injured 264 people, were retribution for Muslim deaths. Tsarnaev called the victims in Boston “collateral damage,” and compared them to Muslims killed in US-led wars.

“When you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims,” he wrote.

According to CBS, the inside wall where the note was written was riddled with bullet holes from over a hundred rounds fired at the hull of the boat. The shots were fired after Tsarnaev emerged from the boat, presumably amid police fears that additional explosive devices remained inside.

The note itself should be admissible at trial and speaks directly to the younger Tsarnaev’s motive in perpetrating the attacks. According to investigators, the message bolsters the theory that Dzhokhar’s involvement in the terrorist plot went beyond merely following the lead of his radicalized brother.