US police arrest 'IS' hopefuls
February 25, 2015
The men, residents of Brooklyn, New York, but citizens of Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan, were arrested over ties to the self-styled "Islamic State" (IS) group.
Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, a 24-year-old from Uzbekistan, and Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, of Kazakhstan, were accused of planning to travel to Syria to join the IS, said Brooklyn Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
According to the criminal complaint, the two men had expressed a willingness to carry out attacks in the US on behalf of the IS. Prosecutors say Juraboev had purchased a plane ticket to Istanbul and was scheduled to fly next month.
Abror Habibov, 30, of Uzbekistan was accused of operating a support network to help fund Saidakhmetov's plans.
Prosecutors say one man was arrested at New York's JFK international airport, another was arrested in Brooklyn, and the other in Florida. All were due to appear in court later on Wednesday.
An offensive from the IS jihadis overran large areas north and west of Baghdad last year, as well as parts of neighboring Syria. Iraqi forces are battling to regain ground, assisted by Shiite fighters, Sunni tribesmen and a US-led coalition conducting air strikes. Forces in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region are also making gains against the IS. Similary, in Syria, Kurdish fighters recently ran the group out of Kobani, a city on the Turkish-Syrian border.
The IS has killed minorities in Syria and Iraq who do not profess allegiance to its self-proclaimed "caliphate," most recently beheading 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya.
jr/msh (AFP, Reuters, AP)