NEW YORK - Two men from the neighbouring state of New Jersey were arrested on Saturday at New Yorks John F Kennedy International Airport as they were about to board flights that would eventually take them to Somalia, local media reported. The two, both in their twenties, were charged with conspiring to commit an act of international terrorism through a group tied to the al-Qaeda network, The Star Ledger newspaper reported late Saturday, citing unidentified official sources. Mohamed Hamoud Alessa, 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 26, were arrested at the airport before they could board separate flights to Egypt, where they were to start journeys to Somalia, the paper said. The two men had been under investigation since October 2006, the Star Ledger said. An unidentified official told the newspaper both men were unmarried American citizens. The US Attorneys Office confirmed the arrests but said the pair did not pose any immediate threat. They are scheduled to appear on Monday in US District Court in Newark, New Jersey. Federal and local law enforcement officials searched the homes of both men where they conducted interviews and removed boxes of papers, a computer and other materials. Authorities had infiltrated the mens social circle and said the suspects were not planning an imminent attack in the New York-New Jersey area but were believed to be intending to join with the Al Shabaab youth movement to fight against Americans in Somalia, the report said. One official briefed on the case was hopeful it would lead to a web of arrests, the newspaper said. The arrests followed a failed attempt to explode a car bomb in New Yorks Times Square last month and an incident on Christmas Day in which a 23-year-old Nigerian tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner by setting off explosives hidden in his underwear.