LUTON, England, July 21 (UPI) -- Great Britain has charged a man with plotting to attack U.S. military personnel based in the United Kingdom.
At a hearing in Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, prosecutors alleged that Junead Ahmed Khan, 24, had planned to attack and kill a U.S. service member by running him over with a car and stabbing him, possibly while wearing a suicide vest.
Prosecutors with Britain's Crown Prosecution Service say he and his uncle, Shazib Ahmed Khan, 22, attempted to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State and commit terrorist acts.
"It is alleged that Junead Khan and Shazib Khan had been planning on traveling to Syria to join the proscribed organization Islamic State," the BBC quoted Deborah Walsh, deputy head of counter-terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service, as saying. "It is further alleged that Junead Khan was planning a terrorist attack on U.S. military personnel in the U.K. and he has been charged with an additional terrorism offense to reflect this."
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Both men are from Luton, England, and have been charged under the Terrorism Act of 2006, which was implemented following the 2005 London suicide bombings that killed more than 50 people.
"Criminal proceedings have now commenced and both men have a right to a fair trial," ABC News quoted Walsh as saying.
Last week, 24-year-old Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez allegedly killed four U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy officer in a gun attack at a recruiting office and Naval Reserve center in Chattanooga, Tenn., before falling dead of gunfire. Officials are treating the incident as a domestic act of terrorism.
In 2013, two men used machetes to openly murder British solider Lee Rigby on the streets of London, with one reportedly saying, "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you."
Both men survived being shot by police and were sentenced to life in prison.
