US charges 2 with trying to back IS

MINNEAPOLIS: One of two Minnesota men accused of planning to join the Islamic State group was stopped at an airport by FBI agents before traveling to the Middle East, but the other man slipped by authorities, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.
Abdullahi Yusuf, 18, was stopped at the Minneapolis airport in late May. Authorities are still looking for 20-year-old Abdi Nur, who left for Istanbul, Turkey, the next day and didn’t return in June as scheduled, according to the court documents.
Yusuf was arrested on his way to school at Inver Hills Community College. His attorney argued for his release during a Tuesday hearing in US District Court in Minneapolis, noting he had been going to school and work despite knowing for months that he was under investigation. But a magistrate judge ordered him held until a detention hearing Wednesday.
Yusuf, who lives in Inver Grove Heights, a suburb of St. Paul, and Nur, of Minneapolis, are charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Nur also is charged with providing material support to a foreign terror group.
US Attorney Andy Luger said both young men conspired to join the Islamic State group “to engage in a campaign of terror in support of a violent ideology.”
Yusuf and Nur applied for expedited passports and, despite being unemployed, deposited about $1,500 for airline tickets into their checking accounts shortly before their scheduled departures, according to the criminal complaint.
Meanwhile, the UN humanitarian chief said Tuesday that an estimated 12.2 million Syrians need assistance because of increasing violence and deteriorating conditions in the country, up from 10.8 million in July.
But Valerie Amos told the UN Security Council that the delivery of aid from Turkey and Jordan to rebel-held areas in Syria without government approval has “made a difference.”
Amos painted a grim picture of the worsening situation in Syria: a 40 percent contraction in the economy since 2011, three-quarters of the population living in poverty, a 50 percent drop in school attendance, and 7.6 million people displaced inside the country and 3.2 million who have fled to other countries — the largest displacement in any conflict.