MINNEAPOLIS , Minnesota ( CNN ) -- A federal grand jury has indicted two Minnesota men in connection with the recruitment of Somali immigrants to fight with Islamic insurgents in their home country . Jamal Bana is one of several missing Somali-Americans believed to have fought with an Islamist insurgency . Salah Osman Ahmed and Abdifatah Yusuf Isse are charged with one count each of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill , kidnap , maim or injure people overseas , the indictment states . The recruiting effort took place between September 2007 and December 2008 , according to the charges . Ahmed also is charged with two counts of making false statements to investigators . According to the indictment , he told FBI agents that he had traveled alone on a flight to Somalia when , in fact , he and another person were going together `` so that they could fight jihad in Somalia . '' Ahmed was arrested Saturday , FBI Special Agent E.K . Wilson told CNN . Isse had been in custody for some time , said Omar Jamal , the head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis . Both were from Minnesota and in their 20s , Jamal said . Jamal said Ahmed and Isse were `` foot soldiers '' carrying out the work of others , and that he expected more indictments `` in a week or two . '' The FBI has been investigating what appears to be a massive recruiting effort by the al Qaeda-linked Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab in immigrant communities in the United States . More than a dozen young men of Somali descent have disappeared from the Minneapolis area in recent months , and at least three have been killed in Somalia , community leaders have said . The latest , Jamal Bana , was confirmed dead over the weekend , his family said Sunday . The same day , Somalia 's president -- a former member of the Islamist movement himself -- issued a plea to Somali-Americans not to join the fight in his country . `` I am saying to those young men from abroad : 'Your families fled your home to America because of insecurity . You should not return here to foment violence against your people , ' `` President Sheik Sharif Ahmed said . Al-Shabaab has ties to al Qaeda and has recruited foreign fighters to join its battle to overthrow the Somali government , U.S. officials said . It remains entrenched in the northeast and in sections south of Somalia 's capital , Mogadishu , after fighting that has uprooted more than 200,000 people since early May , according to the United Nations . Wilson said the number of missing men believed to be in Somalia is `` in the 10s , '' but their recruitment is `` a significant concern and one that we 're giving our highest priority . '' In October , Shirwa Ahmed , 27 , a Somali-American believed to have been radicalized by al-Shabaab , traveled from Minneapolis to Somalia and blew up himself and 29 others . It was the first suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen , and it raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community and sparked an investigation by the FBI . Burhan Hassan , a 17-year-old Somali-American high school student in Minneapolis , went missing eight months ago , around the same time as Bana . Last month , his family learned that he was killed in Somalia . Neither family has any idea why the young males left the United States , where they came as young boys , and Bana 's family believes he was being held against his will , said Omar Jamal , head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis . `` Only one time he placed a phone call [ in mid-November ] , he did n't say much , '' Jamal said . `` He spoke as if he was being held hostage . He could n't be speak freely . They asked him to cut the conversation short . '' Hassan 's uncle , Abdirizak Bihi , said a fourth man -- 30-year-old Zakariya Maruf -- was killed Friday , but Jamal said Maruf may only be injured . Maruf was the first of the missing Somalis to head overseas , said Bihi , who has become a spokesman for the families of the missing men . Bihi called him a `` leader '' whom the others consulted on travel plans . Many of the missing Somali-Americans are believed to have left for Somalia when Ethiopian forces were still on the ground . Ethiopia invaded Somalia to push the Islamists out of Mogadishu in December 2006 , but their presence in the country was an outrage to most Somalis and became a rallying cry for al-Shabaab . Ethiopian troops left Somalia this year , leaving Ahmed 's weak transitional government to battle the insurgents . CNN 's David McKenzie and Tricia Escobedo contributed to this report .
Two defendants were mere `` foot soldiers , '' their legal advocate says . The two men are accused of being part of a group that plotted to attack the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and then kill Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. FBI investigating Somali militants ' recruiting effort in immigrant communities in U.S . The militant group in Africa has ties to al Qaeda .