MAKACHKALA, Russia - Questions have been raised about the significance of a potential link between one of the Boston bombing suspects and a Canadian jihadist who was killed by police in southern Russia last year. Security officials in Russia said Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev disappeared during a trip to the province of Dagestan after the death of William Plotnikov last July. Plotnikov — who was born in Russia but immigrated to Toronto with his parents as a teen — was killed in Dagestan, where he had travelled to join Islamic militants.

One of the brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston bombings had made links with two figures in the Islamist anti-Kremlin insurgency in the Northern Caucasus, both of whom were killed by Russian security forces, a security source said Monday. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was himself killed during his capture by US authorities, was known to have been in contact with a Dagestan militant named Makhmud Nidal and also a militant of Canadian origin named William Plotnikov, a Russian security source in the Northern Caucasus told AFP.

The mother of the two brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston bombings on Thursday launched an impassioned attack on the US authorities over the death of one of her sons, as her husband planned to travel to the United States to find out what happened. The parents of the two suspects, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, spoke to reporters in the Russian region of Dagestan where they were living when the Boston marathon bombings took place.

The father of the two brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston bombings said Thursday he planned to travel to the United States in the next days in order to understand what happened. Anzor Tsarnaev, the father of the two suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, spoke to reporters at a news conference in the Russian region of Dagestan alongside his wife Zubeidat. "I plan to go to the United States to clear everything up. I am not looking for revenge or to offend. Let the special services sort it out," Anzor told reporters in Dagestan's main city Makhachkala.