America
FBI arrests three men planning to join IS
New York, Feb 26
The Federal Bureau of
Investigation(FBI) Wednesday arrested three New York residents who
allegedly were planning to join the Islamic State(IS) and commit
terrorist acts in the US, officials with the agency and the Justice
Department said.
Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev and Abror Habibov,
both citizens of Uzbekistan, and Akhror Saidakhmetov, a citizen of
Kazakhstan, were facing charges of conspiracy for supporting that
terrorist group.
The arrests of the three men, all residents of
the New York borough of Brooklyn and who had been under observation by
law enforcement for several months, were made in New York and Florida.
The
FBI investigation revealed that Juraboev, 24, and Saidakhmetov, 19,
were planning to travel to Syria via Turkey to join the IS, while
Habibov, 30, helped finance Saidakhmetov in his efforts but had no plans
to leave the country.
Saidakhmetov was arrested Wednesday
morning at JFK international airport in New York as he was getting ready
to board a flight to Istanbul, while Juraboev had bought a ticket for
next month to travel to the same destination and was arrested in
Brooklyn.
According to local media, Habibov was arrested in Florida.
In
the indictment, prosecutors said Juraboev first came to the attention
of law enforcement authorities last August when he posted a message on
an Uzbek-language website that propagates the IS ideology saying he and
his companions wanted to "pledge our allegiance" to the IS "and commit
ourselves."
In the same post, he offered to assassinate President
Barack Obama if the terrorist group ordered him to do so. He also
threatened to plant a bomb on New York's Coney Island.
Meanwhile,
Saidakhmetov intended to carry out an attack on US soil if he was
unable to travel to Syria to join the IS, and recently he expressed his
intention to buy a pistol to shoot police officers and FBI agents if
they learned of his plans.
"The flow of foreign fighters to Syria
represents an evolving threat to our country and to our allies," said
the US attorney for Eastern New York, Loretta E. Lynch, in the statement
announcing the arrests.