NEW YORK, Jan 8 – Two alleged associates of an Afghan immigrant accused of planning attacks in New York around the anniversary of the September 11 attacks last year were arrested on Friday, law enforcement officials said.
The two men were arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents early Friday, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told AFP.
The pair are "associates" of Najibullah Zazi, who was accused of buying chemicals and planning a bombing spree to coincide with the anniversary of the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, said a law enforcement source, who asked not to be identified.
The two men arrested were named as Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay.
They "were arrested by the FBI\’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York as the result of an ongoing investigation," Kolko said.
NBC television reported that the pair had been under surveillance since Zazi was arrested for the alleged plot. Medunjanin, a Bosnian immigrant, was arrested after crashing his car while being pursued by the FBI, the report said.
Ahmedzay is a taxi driver, NBC reported.
Details of the charges against the two were not immediately announced. They were expected to be brought before a judge in Brooklyn later Friday.
Zazi, who is being held without bail in Brooklyn, has been charged with conspiracy. However, so far, no one else has been charged with co-conspiracy in preparing attacks.
Zazi\’s father and an imam living in Queens, New York have both been charged with lying to the FBI.
Zazi allegedly traveled to Pakistan and received training from a group linked to Al-Qaeda.
Prosecutors say he had carried bomb-making instructions in a laptop and had been shopping for large quantities of chemicals found in beauty products that could have been the ingredients for explosives.
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