An Illinois National Guard specialist and his cousin were arrested on federal charges that they conspired to aid Islamic State terrorists.
Guardsman Hasan Edmonds, 22, was picked up Wednesday at Chicago's Midway International Airport. Jonas Edmonds, 29, was apprehended at his Aurora, Illinois, home, Chicago U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon said in a statement.
"We will pursue and prosecute with vigor those who support ISIL and its agenda of ruthless violence," Fardon said, using shorthand for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The case comes a month after prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, charged three local men with trying to join Islamic State. This month, a U.S. Air Force veteran was indicted in Brooklyn for trying to join the Sunni Muslim insurgency that controls swaths of Syria and Iraq.
Prosecutors said on Thursday that the two men met with an undercover FBI agent with whom they plotted an attack on a U.S. military facility in northern Illinois. Jonas Edmonds planned to carry out the plan after Hasan left for Cairo, where he wanted to fight for Islamic State, they said.
The two face as long as 15 years in prison for conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist group and fines of as much as $250,000. They are scheduled to appear in court on Thursday. Their attorneys couldn't immediately be identified.
The case is U.S. v. Edmonds, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).