The mother of the Boston bombing suspects watches the video of her dead son's mutilated body and cries, her lawyer revealed on Tuesday, after it emerged that she is to be questioned by U.S. investigators.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva appeared publicly outside her home for the first time since her sons Tamerlan and Dzhokhar were named as suspects. She was ushered past journalists and into a taxi, which sped away.
U.S. investigators traveled to southern Russia today to speak to Mrs Tsarnaeva and her husband Anzor, an American Embassy official said. Mrs Tsarnaeva is in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim province in Russia's Caucasus, where Islamic militants have waged an insurgency against Russian security sources for years.
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Questioning: Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, mother of Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, leaves her home for the first time on Tuesday in Dagestan with an unidentified man
Grief: Zubeidat Tsarnaeva outside her home in the predominantly Muslim province in Russia's Caucasus
Agony of 'Bomber's' mother over dead son
The family's lawyer Heda Saratova, asked for the family to be left alone and said that the parents had just seen pictures of the mutilated body of their elder son and were not up to speaking with anyone at the moment.
'The mother is in very bad shape,' Saratova said. 'She watches the video [of her dead son] and cries.'
Incredible new images emerged on Tuesday which captured the dramatic gun battle between police and the suspected Boston bombers in a residential street, leaving one brother dead.
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The images, taken by a resident of Watertown, Massachusetts in the early hours of Friday and posted on his blog, appear to show the Tsarnaev brothers sheltering behind a vehicle and taking aim at police officers.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and his brother Tamerlan, 26, are reportedly seen running to a car for more supplies before hauling out a pressure cooker bomb they then detonated, filling the street with smoke.
Battle: The eyewitness said the men ran to the green sedan, left, for more supplies such as explosives
Threat: In another image, a red circle shows what the eyewitness believed to be a pressure cooker bomb
Taken down: As he drove the car, his older brother was taken down by police. His body is circled
The photographs, taken on the eyewitness' phone from a third-floor bedroom overlooking the scene, are the first images giving insight into the fraught battle that left one brother dead.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev then jumped in the car and barreled towards the police barricade, making a narrow escape. Authorities said that he ran over his brother Tamerlan.
Their mother told Channel 4 on Tuesday that her sons had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks.
She said: 'What happened is a terrible thing but I know my kids have nothing to do with this. I know it, I am mother.'
The trip by the U.S. team was made possible because of Russian government cooperation with the FBI investigation into the bombing at the Boston Marathon.
Plans: Zubeidat Tsarnaev (pictured left) said that her husband Anzor would be traveling to the U.S. as the family hoped to bring her son's body back to Russia
Suspects: Dzhokhar, right, and Tamerlan Tsarnaev are accused of planting the Boston bombs last Monday
Shielded: Katherine Russell, the widow of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, leaves her lawyer's office on Tuesday
Also on Tuesday, the bombers' sister, Ailena and Bella Tsarnaev, released a statement to the media, saying that they 'don't have the answers' about their brothers' alleged crimes.
The statement read: 'Our heart goes out the victims of last week's bombing. It saddens us to see so many innocent people hurt after such a callous act. As a family, we are absolutely devastated by the sense of loss and sorrow this has caused.
'We don't have any answers but we look forward to a thorough investigation and hope to learn more. We ask the media to respect our privacy during this difficult time.'
The brothers are accused of setting off the bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 180 others on April 15.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a police shootout, while his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar was captured alive but badly wounded.
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The embassy official said he could not confirm whether the U.S. investigators had already talked to the parents.
'Naturally, the parents are not ready to meet with anyone because the grief is enormous,' Russian official Zaurbek Sadakhanov told a crowd of journalist in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.
'They ... are asking to be left alone, at least for a while, to be able to recover.
'As to the case, I think that detectives and policemen in the United States are knowledgeable and will find out what happened in an objective and unbiased way.'
An aerial view of the Dagestan capital of Makhachkala, a region which has been marked by insurgent violence
The mother is from Dagestan, while the suspects' father is from neighboring Chechnya.
Their sons had spent little time in either place before the family moved to the U.S. a decade ago, but the elder son was in Russia for six months last year.
The father of the two Boston bombing suspects will apparently travel to the U.S. later this week in order to seek 'justice and the truth'.
Anzor Tsarnaev says he has 'lots of questions for the police' and is keen 'to clear up many things' when he arrives from his home in Makhachkala in Russia.
He had previously said that he would return to America this week in the wake of the death of his elder son Tamerlan and the arrest of 19-year-old Dzhokhar.