© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
The FBI on Wednesday arrested three men from Brooklyn who they allege planned to launch terrorist attacks in the United States if they were not able to join ISIS in Syria. Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, 24, an Uzbekistan citizen; Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, a Kazakhstan citizen; and Abror Habibov, 30, an Uzbekistan citizen, were all arrested and charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. According to law-enforcement officials, the men also planned to return to New York to commit an act of domestic terrorism if they failed in their effort to join ISIS.
One of the suspect’s mothers supposedly took his passport because she was afraid he may join ISIS abroad.
“Greetings!” Juraboev wrote on a pro-ISIS website, according to prosecutors. “We too wanted to pledge our allegiance and commit ourselves while not present there [Syria]. I am in USA now but we don’t have any arms. But is it possible to commit ourselves as dedicated martyrs anyway while here? What I’m saying is, to shoot Obama and then get shot ourselves, will it do? That will strike fear in the hearts of infidels.”
Prosecutors say the men wanted to kill soldiers (by joining the military), police officers, and bomb Coney Island. One allegedly pronounced his intention to hijack a plane and give it to ISIS.