20 year old charged over plot on US army base

A 20-year-old US citizen has been charged with attempting to explode a car bomb at Fort Riley in Manhattan, Kansas.

According to the FBI John T Booker Jr was making final preparations to carry out the suicide attack on behalf of the Islamic State (IS).  Booker previously had tried to join the Army, but was denied entry because of internet posts about "jihad".

Authorities say that US personnel were never in danger, but he is the latest American to be arrested for attempted support of IS. Two Chicago men were arrested in late March for attempting to provide material support to the organization.

Earlier this month two women in New York City were also arrested on suspicion of planning to use a weapon of mass destruction.

The BBC reports that Booker, also known as Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, had enlisted in the military "with the intent to commit an insider attack against American soldiers," according to the FBI complaint.

He had "formulated several plans for committing jihad once enlisted", including shooting soldiers on the firing range and kidnapping a high-ranking officer. He told an undercover FBI informant that he wanted to show that "we will be coming after American soldiers in the streets... we will be picking them off one by one."

The BBC reports that by 20 March 2014 he was told that he would not be permitted to join the military, and was questioned by FBI agents regarding Facebook posts declaring his sympathies for Islamic militants. He told the agents that he had "enlisted in the United States Army with the intent to commit an insider attack like Major Nidal Hasan."

Hasan, an army psychiatrist had opened fire inside Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people in 2009.