Georgia Men Were Training School Shooters: Reports

Two Georgia men with alleged terrorist ties, including one accused of kidnapping his 3-year-old son, were training children to become school shooters at a New Mexico compound, prosecutors say.

The New York Daily News reports that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, who was arrested along with Lucas Morten, told prosecutors he was training 11 malnourished children found at the filthy compound near the Colorado border to carry out shooting sprees.

The children, some as young as 1, were rescued Friday. Authorities had been looking for Wahhaj, 39, who had been wanted in Clayton County in the disappearance of his toddler son. He and Morten, also from Georgia, were arrested at the compound.

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Investigators got a lead, and a reason to search the compound, when someone believed to be there sent a message to a third party saying they were starving and needed food and water.

Wahhaj is the son of radical Imam Siraj Wahhaj who, as the Daily News notes, federal officials have called an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

In addition to the children, five adults were found at the compound. They and the children "looked like third-world country refugees not only with no food or fresh water, but with no shoes, personal hygiene and basically dirty rags for clothing," Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said in a news release.

Wahhaj's young son was not one of the children rescued and prosecutors believe he may be buried at the compound, the Daily News reported. Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, who lived with his mother in the Atlanta area, went missing back in December. Hogrefe said Wednesday that a body believed to be his was found at the compound on Tuesday.

Three women, believed to be the children's mothers, were detained for questioning and released pending the outcome of an investigation.

Morten has been charged with harboring a fugitive and Wahhaj was booked on his no-bond Georgia warrant for child abduction.

The 11 children were immediately taken into protective custody and later turned over to the state Children, Youth and Families division.

Photos courtesy Taos County (NM) Sheriff's Office