India Allows Request to Charge U.S. Citizen in 2008 Attacks MUMBAI, India - An Indian court on Saturday approved a request by prosecutors to charge an American citizen, David Coleman Headley, in connection with the 2008 terrorist attacks in this city, according to an official with the National Investigation Agency. The decision, which is the first step in seeking an extradition, sets up a possible confrontation between the United States and India. Mr. Headley has confessed in the United States to playing a major role in the Mumbai attacks, which killed at least 163 people, but he testified against another man tried in the attack to avoid both the death penalty and extradition to India. The plea deal has angered many Indians, already frustrated by the slow progress in the investigations into the brazen attack that unfolded over several days and shook this city. So far, only one person has been convicted in the case in India: the sole surviving gunman in the attacks, Ajmal Kasab, who has been sentenced to death. The court also approved charges against seven Pakistanis and another man being held in the United States, Tahawwur Rana. It was Mr. Rana whom Mr. Headley testified against in a United States court. Mr. Rana was eventually acquitted of helping to plot the Mumbai attacks, but he was found guilty of supporting plans to attack a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Pakistan has previously refused to hand over people India accuses of plotting the attacks. The long-running investigation by India is focused on foreigners, primarily believed to be based in Pakistan, who it says masterminded the attack. The attack was carried out by 10 young Pakistanis who held Mumbai under siege for three days, terrorizing five-star hotels, a busy train station, a Jewish center, a popular bar and other locations. The case of Mr. Headley, the son of a Pakistani diplomat and a Philadelphia socialite, has become a particularly delicate flash point in India-United States relations. Mr. Headley, who spent his formative years in Pakistan but returned to the United States at the age of 17, traveled to India several times between 2006 and 2009, scoping out targets for terrorist attacks, according to Indian and American investigators. Earlier in his life, he was engaged in the drug trade and at one point became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration. Vikas Bajaj reported from Mumbai, and Hari Kumar from New Delhi.