Headley charged with involvement in Mumbai terror attacks

Chicago, Dec 7 : US prosecutors have filed fresh charges against suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley in connection with last year's deadly attacks in Mumbai that took the lives of 166 people.

Headley, an American citizen of Pakistani origin already accused of plotting to murder a Danish newspaper cartoonist, was cited in charges unsealed Monday morning in Chicago with conspiracy in connection with the Mumbai attacks.

Headley, whose birth name was Daood Gilani, is accused of scoping out locations for the attacks in India. He'd been travelling throughout India last year, conducting surveillance in anticipation of the coordinated bombings that also left hundreds injured, federal authorities said.

Headley, who lives on Chicago's North Side, was charged with six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder and maim persons in India and Denmark, to provide material support to foreign terrorist plots and to provide material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani-based militant group.

US prosecutors said they had also unsealed charges against a retired Pakistani military major, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, for participating in the conspiracy to attack the Danish newspaper and its employees.

Headley and another Chicago man, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, were initially arrested in the Denmark case, charged with plotting an attack on the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten out of revenge for a dozen cartoons printed in 2005 depicting the prophet Muhammad.

Rana has denied involvement in a terror plot.

Authorities said Headley has been cooperating with investigators since FBI agents arrested him at Chicago's O'Hare airport in October.