Washington, April 21 (IANS): Six Somali Americans from Minnesota have been detained and charged with planning to leave the country to fight alongside the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

The US Justice Department on Monday said that two of the six were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Sunday in San Diego, where they intended to pick up passports and then cross into Mexico to board a flight to Syria, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

The other four were also arrested on Sunday by FBI agents at various locations in the city of Minneapolis.

All six were charged with conspiracy to aid and support a terrorist organisation.

The two arrested in San Diego are Mohamed Abdihamid Farah and Abdirahman Yasin Daud. The four arrested in Minneapolis are Adnan Abdihamid Farah, Hanad Mustafe Musse and Guled Ali Omar and Zacharia Yusuf Abdurahman.

The arrests, which follow a 10-month investigation, indicate that young Somali men in the two cities continue to be targeted and influenced by sophisticated recruiting campaigns carried out by IS, investigators said.