United States prosecutors on Monday charged an American man in the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, including charges that he aided and abetted the murder of six Americans, weeks after Italy said it had detained two Pakistanis in connection with the attacks.
David Headley, the first American charged in the plot, was accused of receiving training from the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is blamed for the 2008 plot. Prosecutors say he had traveled to Mumbai several times since 2006 and took pictures and video of some places hit in the attacks.
Headley had already been arrested in October on charges he had plotted to attack a Danish newspaper and its employees over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. That incident sparked violent protests.
After his trips to India, Headley traveled to Pakistan to turn over the results of his surveillance and, in early 2008, he took boat trips into the Mumbai harbor, according to court documents released by the U.S. Justice Department.
In November 2008, 10 attackers launched their assault on various targets in Mumbai, including several where Headley had conducted surveillance, according to the documents. The attackers had arrived in Mumbai by boat.
"This investigation remains active and ongoing," said Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, where the charges were filed. "The team of prosecutors and agents will continue to seek charges against the other persons responsible for these attacks."
The charges against Headley, a U.S. citizen who is now cooperating with investigators in both the Indian and Danish plot, include aiding and abetting the murder of the six Americans who died in the Mumbai attacks.
A lawyer for Headley declined to comment.
U.S. prosecutors said they also unsealed charges against a retired major in the Pakistani military, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, for participating in the conspiracy to attack the Danish newspaper and its employees.
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