New York women charged in bomb plot: reports

NEW YORK: Two New York women who lived together have been charged with planning to build a bomb that they wanted to detonate in the United States, media reports said Thursday.

US citizens Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31, were named in a complaint unsealed in the federal district court in Brooklyn, The New York Times reported.

Siddiqui was "in possession of multiple propane gas tanks, as well as instructions for how to transform propane tanks into explosive devices," the newspaper quoted from the complaint.

The women from Queens had communicated with members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen, the paper said.

Read: Islamic State video purports to show beheading of US journalist

They also reportedly watched videos of beheadings carried out by extremists from the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, it added.

The case was the latest in a string of alleged plots inspired by Islamic extremists.

Last week, two cousins were arrested in Chicago for allegedly conspiring to wage war on behalf of IS militants.

In March, four men pleaded not guilty in federal courts in Brooklyn over alleged plots to join the IS group in Syria.

Former US Air Force mechanic Tairod Pugh, 47, spent the last 18 months living in the Middle East but was deported home to the United States after being detained at Istanbul airport.

Uzbek citizens Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, 24 and Abror Habibov, 30, together with Kazakh citizen Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, pleaded not guilty in connection to a separate plot.