A Minnesota man was charged on Wednesday as the tenth person in an alleged conspiracy that encouraged young Somali-American men to travel overseas to join militant group Islamic State and he planned to make the trip himself, court papers showed.
Since 2007, US prosecutors say, dozens of people from Minnesota, many young Somali-American men among them, have travelled or attempted to travel overseas to support Islamic State or al Shabaab, a Somalia-based militant group.
Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame was arrested on Wednesday, according to jail records in Anoka County, where he is being held. Warsame, 20, is from Eagan, a community just south of Minneapolis, local media say.
It was not clear if Warsame had secured an attorney and he could not be reached for comment.
The criminal complaint filed in federal court said Warsame was one of several young men from Minnesota`s Somali-American community who last year began conspiring to travel to Syria to fight with Islamic State, which controls large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.
Three have pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to the militant group and five are awaiting trial, while a ninth man was charged, but not arrested, and remains in Syria, the complaint says.
