Family of Boulder suspect detained by immigration officers

Immigration authorities have in custody the wife and five children of the man suspected of carrying out Sunday's incendiary attack on Jewish demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, has been charged with attempted murder, assault and possession of an incendiary device after a dozen people were injured at a march calling for the release of Israeli hostages. He also faces a federal hate crime charge.

"We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided to it," Noem posted on X.

Officials say the suspect shouted "Free Palestine" as he threw two petrol bombs into the crowd.

The White House said in a post on X: "The wife and five children of illegal alien Mohamed Soliman - the suspect in the antisemitic firebombing of Jewish Americans- have been captured and are now in ICE custody for expedited removal."

It added in all capital letters that the family could be deported as soon as Tuesday night.

"Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed's Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon," the White House added in another post.

Homeland security is responsible for enforcing immigration laws, but the FBI, justice department and local police typically carry out investigations into possible criminal activity.

Twelve people, including four men and four women between the ages of 52 and 88, were taken to hospital, with injuries ranging from minor to serious.

The eldest of the victims is a Holocaust survivor, Rabbi Israel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado Boulder, told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

In an affidavit, police said Mr Soliman had itted carrying out the attack and that he had been planning it for a year.

• What we know about the attack in Colorado

Homeland security officials have said that Mr Soliman arrived in the US on a tourist visa in August 2022. That visa expired the following year, but he made an asylum claim in September 2022.

According to police documents, the suspect told officials that he "never talked to his wife or his family" about his plans, and that he had left a phone in a desk drawer with messages to his wife and children. His wife turned the phone in to authorities.

One of Mr Soliman's daughters was recently awarded a scholarship by a local newspaper in Colorado Springs.

"Coming to the USA has fundamentally changed me," she wrote in the scholarship application.

"I learned to work under pressure and improve rapidly in a very short amount of time. Most importantly, I came to appreciate that family is the unchanging ."

The newspaper reported she was interested in studying medicine.

A profile in the Gazette newspaper noted she "was born in Egypt but lived in Kuwait for 14 years" and relocated to the US two years ago.

The newspaper also reported: "When she was young her father underwent a difficult surgery that restored his ability to walk."

After his arrest, Mr Soliman told police he planned the attack for after his daughter's high school graduation, according to the FBI.

The defendant appeared in court on Monday via a video feed from the Boulder County Jail for less than five minutes, standing and wearing an orange jumpsuit.

He answered "yes" to some procedural questions from the judge, but otherwise did not speak.

He is next due in court for the formal filing of charges and a bail hearing on Thursday.