Kansas Men Charged for Planning Attack on Mosque

A US federal court has charged three men planning to attack an apartment building that also harbored a mosque.

The case came after a months-long FBI probe into a local rightwing militia group. The three Kansas men were charged on Friday in US federal court for conspiring to use explosives as a weapon of mass destruction, according to the Justice Department.

“Curtis Allen, Gavin Wright and Patrick Eugene were all members of a rightwing militia. They were arrested after plotting to blow up a Garden City apartment complex that housed Somali immigrants, as well as a mosque,” said John Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security, Deutsche Welle reported.

According to Tom Beall, acting US attorney for Kansas, the men had performed surveillance on the building, picked potential targets and gathered stockpiles of weapons and ammunition. They had also prepared a manifesto.

The arrest came after an eight-month-long FBI probe into the rightwing militia group, in which an undercover agent exposed “a hidden culture of hatred and violence”, Beall said.

“Protecting our nation from such attacks, whether they are rooted in domestic or international terrorism, is our highest priority,” said Carlin.

The men face up to life in prison without parole.

The incident comes as fears of anti-Muslim violence grow amid heightened anti-Muslim rhetoric.   US Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, has said he wants to ban certain Muslims from entering the country.