John T. Booker Jr. was charged with "attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction…attempting to damage property by means of an explosive and one count of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," the US Justice Department said Friday.

The three federal charges, if convicted, could see him face life imprisonment for planning to detonate a car bomb in order to support "Islamic State" ("IS").

The 20-year-old was arrested earlier on Friday local time near the Kansas city of Manhattan "as he made his final preparations for his planned assault" on the US military base, Fort Riley, Barry Grissom, the US attorney for Kansas said.

“Unbeknownst to him, the materials that were used to make up this bomb were inert,” Grissom said.

"It is alleged that he planned to pull the trigger of the explosives himself so that he would die in the explosion," he added.

"It is alleged that he told another individual that detonating a suicide bomb was his number one aspiration," Grissom said.

FBI agents questioned Booker over a year ago for his "jihad sympathies," his hometown newspaper The Topeka Capital-Journal reported at the time.

Booker was scheduled to appear in court on Friday.

jlw/kms (Reuters, AFP)