"The defendant picked up that assault rifle, saw agents and soldiers and tried to kill them," Assistant US Attorney Jenna Dabbs said. But lawyers for the US-educated Siddiqui - who repeatedly interrupted the federal court to denounce the proceedings - said there is no hard evidence that she fired a shot.
Defence attorney Charles Swift pointed to inconsistencies in witnesses' testimony and told jurors: "You're not going to have any physical evidence that it (the rifle) was fired." Journalists and supporters of Siddiqui, many of them wearing the hijab and other Muslim garb, crammed the courtroom and an overflow room where the trial was relayed by television link.
The prosecution of Siddiqui is the most advanced in a string of current cases related to what Washington calls the "war on terror." Several other suspects in alleged bomb plots are working their way through the system, and the self-described mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks is also due to be tried in New York.