WASHINGTON, Oct 5: The US Justice Department on Friday charged six people, five of them Muslims, with conspiracy to wage a war against the United States by fighting on the side of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the months after the Sept 11 terror attacks.

Four were arrested on Friday morning — three in Portland, Oregon, and one in Detroit. Two are at large outside the United States, officials said.

Five of the terror suspects indicted on Friday were the US citizens. One was a citizen of Jordan and a legal US resident. All were at one-time residents of Portland, the officials said.

The indictment charges that five of the six — US citizens Jeffrey Leon Battle, Patrice Lumumba Ford, Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal and Mohammad Ibrahim Bilal, and Jordanian national Habis Abdulla Al Saoub — attempted to travel to Afghanistan after Sept 11, 2001, to join forces with the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The sixth, Martinique Lewis, Battle’s former wife, sent money overseas to support the men in their mission. None of those arrested on Friday had actually made it to Afghanistan. Officials would not comment if the remaining two men had successfully joined forces with Al Qaeda.

The conspiracy came to the attention of the federal officials in part through the efforts of a local sheriff in Skamania County, Washington, the officials said on Friday. No evidence was presented that the men had tried to wage terrorist attacks within the United States, or that they had connections with other suspected terrorists.

US Attorney-General John Ashcroft said on Friday the “terrorist cell” had been neutralized, but added that investigations would continue.

All six were charged with conspiracy to levy a war against the United States, conspiracy to provide material support and resources to Al Qaeda, conspiracy to contribute services to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and possessing firearms in the furtherance of crimes of violence, the indictment said.