The FBI is disputing a claim by the mother of the suspected Boston bombers, who said the bureau had spoken to the older brother after the bombs exploded at last Monday’s marathon.

At FBI headquarters in Washington, spokesman Michael Kortan says the bureau’s 2011 interview with Tamerlan Tsarnaev was the only FBI contact with him.

Kortan is standing by the bureau’s public statement from Friday in which the bureau described that interview. That statement says the FBI did not learn of the identities of the bombing suspects, Tamerlan and his brother, Dzhokhar, until Friday, the day Tamerlan was killed.

The brothers’ parents in Russia have insisted that the FBI continued to monitor Tamerlan after the 2011 interview and say both of their sons were set up.

(AP)