Aunt: Tamerlan Struggled With Islam, Chechen Identity

In this Feb. 17, 2010, photo, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, left, Smiles after acceping the trophy for winning the 2010 New England Golden Gloves Championship from Dr. Joseph Downes, right, in Lowell, Mass. Tsarnaev, 26, who ha... In this Feb. 17, 2010, photo, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, left, Smiles after acceping the trophy for winning the 2010 New England Golden Gloves Championship from Dr. Joseph Downes, right, in Lowell, Mass. Tsarnaev, 26, who had been known to the FBI as Suspect No. 1 in the Boston Marathon Explosions and was seen in surveillance footage in a black baseball cap, was killed overnight on Friday, April 19, 2013, officials said. (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun, Julia Malakie) MANDATORY CREDIT; MORE LESS
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MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) — An aunt of the elder Boston bombing suspect says he struggled to find himself while trying to reconnect with his Chechen identity on a trip to Russia last year.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev “seemed to be more American” than Chechen and “didn’t fit into the Islamic world,” his aunt Patimat Suleimanova told The Associated Press.

Suleimanov added that Tsarnaev spoke daily on Skype to his American-born wife, who had recently converted to Islam, and that she instructed him on how to observe Islam correctly.

Investigators are focusing on the six months Tsarnaev spent last year in southern Russia, where he stayed with his father for at least part of the time.

Tsarnaev was killed in a gun battle with police. His younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was later captured alive, but badly wounded.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

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