Off the wire
• Urgent: Oil prices rally amid geopolitical worries  • Portuguese Communist Party criticizes optimistic deficit figures  • Connected, autonomous cars to create 320,000 British jobs by 2030: report  • Latvian ex-president's Reform Party to disband: media  • Pakistan to send Defence Minister to Saudi Arabia after Yemen strikes  • More Americans use mobile banking, Fed says  • Saudi-led air forces bomb Houthi-controlled air base in Yemen's Taiz  • Feature: Special Bulgarian land forces unit shows diving skills in Danube  • African countries urged to focus on developing small enterprises  • Urgent: Gold up on Yemen uncertainty  
You are here: 　 Home

1st LD Writethru: U.S. National Guardsman arrested for plotting terror attack for IS

Xinhua, March 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Two U.S. citizens, including a U.S. National Guardsman, were arrested Wednesday night for allegedly conspiring to provide material support to the extremist group Islamic State (IS), U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.

Army National Guard Specialist Hasan Edmonds, 22, was arrested at Chicago Midway International Airport while attempting to fly to Cairo, Egypt, the Justice Department said in a statement. His cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 29, was arrested at home in Aurora, Illinois.

"Both defendants were charged in a criminal complaint filed yesterday ... with one count of conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization," said the statement.

Hasan Edmonds first came to the attention of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in late 2014 as the two men devised a plan for Hasan Edmonds to travel overseas to fight for IS while Jonas Edmonds launching an attack against a U.S. military facility in northern Illinois, an installation where Hasan Edmonds had been training.

According to investigators, both defendants met with an FBI undercover employee and offered a plan to attack the Illinois military post. Jonas Edmonds reportedly asked the FBI undercover employee to assist in the attack, explaining that he intended to use Hasan Edmonds's uniform and information he provided about how to access the installation to carry out the attack.

Both men will be appearing in federal court later Thursday. If convicted, the two men will face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a 250,000 U.S. dollar fine.

The arrest came a week after another former U.S. Air Force veteran was indicted for trying to join IS. Endite