Alexandria, Va. ? Eleven men, nine of them U.S. citizens, were charged with conspiring to join a Muslim extremist group that has been blamed for thousands of deaths in the Kashmir territory of India and Pakistan.

A federal indictment unsealed Friday contends the men, who lived from early 2000 to May 2003 in suburban Fairfax County just south of Washington, obtained AK-47-style assault weapons and ammunition, trained in military tactics and visited terrorist camps in Pakistan linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba group dedicated to driving India out of Kashmir.

Six of the men were arrested Friday, two were in custody earlier and three were being sought.

U.S. Atty. Paul McNulty called the indictment “a stark reminder that terrorist organizations of various allegiances are active in the United States. And these groups exploit America’s freedom as a weapon to recruit and position themselves on our shores.”

McNulty said that Lashkar-e-Taiba had claimed responsibility for the deaths of 14,000 Indian soldiers and the killing of more than 300 civilians. The group, which appears on the State Department’s international terror list, was behind the Dec. 13, 2001, attack on India’s Parliament that killed 12 people.

There have also been reports of links between the Kashmir group, whose name means “army of the righteous,” and al-Qaida, McNulty said. Although Friday’s indictment does not allege any plots to stage attacks here, it does say that members were told that U.S. troops in Afghanistan were legitimate targets and that “the United States was the greatest enemy of Muslims.”