Washington - A US citizen has been arrested on terrorism charges that include a plot to attack shopping centres in the United States, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Tarek Mehanna, 27, of Sudbury, Massachusetts, was arrested Wednesday morning and charged in a federal court with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
Mehanna and an unknown number of co-conspirators allegedly sought to join terrorist groups and radicalize others by distributing "jihadi videos" between 2001 and 2008, according to US attorney Michael Loucks.
The charges allege that Mehanna and his group planned to get automatic machine guns and turn them on civilians in shopping centres.
The discussions were as detailed as the "logistics of a mall attack," Loucks said at a press conference in Boston. The attack was never carried out because they were unable to acquire the weapons they believed were needed.
Mehanna also travelled to the Middle East in 2004 in an effort to join terrorism training camps and planned to join attacks on US soldiers in Iraq, according to the charges filed in Massachusetts.
Mehanna faces up to 15 years in prison. He was already arrested in November 2008 and charged in January with lying to federal investigators, but was released on bail.
