NEW YORK, Aug 5: US authorities arrested two men in a mosque in Albany (New York) who were allegedly plotting to buy a shoulder-fired missile to assassinate the Pakistani ambassador, according to court papers filed on Thursday.

The arrests came as the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agents executed search warrants at the Masjid As-Salam and two Albany-area residences late Wednesday and early Thursday.

The men were identified as Yassin Arif, 34, the imam of the mosque, and Mohammed Hussain, 49, one of the founders of the mosque. The men had ties with a group called Ansarul Islam, which has been linked with Al Qaeda, according to federal law-enforcement authorities.