By NBC News and wire services
An 18-year-old from Chicago was arrested during an undercover operation in which agents pretending to be extremists provided him with a phony car bomb that he intended to detonate outside a downtown bar, the U.S. District Attorney's office in Chicago said Saturday.
Adel Daoud of Chicago's Hillside suburb was arrested Friday night.
The U.S. District Attorney's Office said in a news release Saturday the device was inert and the public was never at risk.
Daoud was charged in court Saturday with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to damage and destroy a building with an explosive.
Federal prosecutors say the FBI began monitoring him after he posted material online about violent jihad and the killing of Americans.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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