Washington, Mar 26 (EFE).– The FBI arrested a U.S. soldier, who was planning to travel to the Middle East to provide the Islamic State with his military knowledge, and his cousin, who was going to remain in this country allegedly to carry out a terrorist attack, the Department of Justice announced Thursday in a communique.

Both men – who are U.S. citizens – will appear on Thursday before the Illinois District Court on charges of providing material support to the Islamic State.

The 22-year-old National Guard soldier, Hasan Edmonds, was arrested on Wednesday by FBI agents at the Chicago International Airport as he was preparing to board a flight to Cairo.

His cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 29, was arrested at his home in Aurora, in northern Illinois.

According to the charges filed in court, the two men outlined a plan for Hasan Edmonds to travel abroad to carry out terrorist attacks in the name of the Islamic State, for which he was intending to take advantage of his military training.

The plan assigned Jonas Edmonds a rearguard role, and he was going to remain in the United States presumably with the aim of attacking a military facility in Illinois once Hasan was abroad.

The soldier’s activities attracted the FBI’s attention in late 2014, the communique said.

An undercover FBI agent “friended” Hasan on Facebook and the pair began to exchange messages. The soldier eventually told the agent his plan to stage attacks in the name of the Islamic State.

The two arrested men later met with the undercover agent and explained the plan and their intention to carry out an armed attack against the military base where Hasan had trained.

Jonas asked the undercover agent to help him with the attack, for which they intended to wear National Guard camouflage uniforms and use the information Hasan had gathered while serving in the Guard on how to enter the base.

If the two men are convicted of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, they could face 15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. EFE