First, there was the Sydney Siege, then there was the Paris Massacre. The third ISIS-linked terrorism attack could have resulted in a Washington Carnage had not the FBI arrested an Ohio man on Wednesday with plans to blow up the American capitol.

The jihadist, 20-year-old Christopher Lee Cornell, planned to detonate pipe bombs in Washington DC and then gun down government officials and employees who would run outside their buildings after the explosions, reports ABC.

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The FBI had actually been monitoring Cornell who uses the Twitter handle Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah. He had tweeted support for a violent jihad as well as statements, videos and other forms of support for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria which is behind the beheading of American and British prisoners and recently execution of alleged Russian spies.

Cornell, from Green Township in Ohio, allegedly sent an online message to his FBI informant in August wherein he said he would wage a holy war on his own, including planning and executing the attack. He said these attacks had the approval of Anwar Awlaki, a radical cleric who was an operational leader within al Qaeda before he was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2011.

He met the informant in Cincinnati in October and November, when he told the latter that members of Congress are the enemies and he would initiate an attack in Washington DC.

After he had saved enough money to fund the attack and research on how to build bombs, Cornell purchased two semi-automatic rifles and 600 rounds of ammunition from an Ohio store, the FBI said.

After Cornell's arrest, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to law enforcement agencies in the U.S. to warn them about the continued interest of violent extremist based in the U.S. to support foreign terror groups like ISIL by performing violent attacks in the United States. It also said these groups will use social media sites to spread their violent extremist messages in English language.

John Cornell, the father of Christopher, expressed disbelief that his son could carry out an attack, although he admitted the latter recently got interested in Islam.

Cornell told CNN, "I don't think Chris could hurt a fly. His best friend is our kitty cat, you know what I mean? He's such a loveable, kind person."

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