TOLEDO, Ohio — Four men, two of them Indian citizens, were working together to send money and other assistance to a known al Qaida leader before he was killed in a drone strike, the US Justice Department said Thursday.
The money, federal prosecutors said, was intended to support efforts to carry out violence against US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The two pairs of brothers worked to raise money through fraudulent credit card charges and deliver it to the al Qaida leader over about seven years beginning in 2005, according to an indictment filed in federal court in Ohio.
One of the suspects traveled to Yemen in 2009 and gave $22,000 to an associate of Anwar al-Awlaki, the Al Qaida leader, the indictment said.
US officials considered al-Awlaki, who was killed by an unmanned US drone in Yemen in 2011, to be an inspirational leader of al-Qaida, and linked him to the planning and execution of several attacks targeting American and Western interests, including the 2009 Christmas Day attempt on a Detroit-bound airliner.
All four men were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
According to the indictment, they are:
— Yahya Farooq Mohammad, 37, an Indian citizen who was at Ohio State from 2002-04. He has lived in the United Arab Emirates since 2004. He also was charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
— Ibrahim Zubair Mohammad, 36, an Indian citizen who was at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign from 2001-05. He has lived in Toledo since 2006. He also was charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
— Asif Ahmed Salim, 35, a US citizen who was at Ohio State from 2000-05. He lived in Overland Park, Kansas, from 2007-2011 before moving to the United Arab Emirates.
— Sultane Room Salim, 40, a US citizen who lived in the Chicago-area from 2006-12 until moving to the Columbus area.
Court documents do not list attorneys for any of the men.
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