Four alleged militants have been charged with planning to attack the police and rail stations in London on Friday.

The four men appeared in court in London Friday and were charged with terrorism offences. 

Tarik Hassane, 21, Suhaib Majeed, 20, Nyall Hamlett, 24, and Momen Motasim, 21, are alleged to have taken an oath of allegiance to the group ISIL. The group is a proscribed organization in the U.K.

The four men are also alleged to have “viewed and retained an image sent via Instagram” of two Metropolitan Police Officers
 and two Metropolitan Police Community Support Officers as well as to have conducted “hostile reconnaissance” using Google Street View mapping, of Shepherds Bush Police Station and White City Territorial Army Barracks. A fifth man, Nathan Cuffy, 25, has been charged with firearm offences.

Police say that the four men entered into “covert discussions,” sought to obtain a firearm, and possessed a 'fatwa' by Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, the official spokesperson for ISIL, that calls for strikes against the United States in retaliation for U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.

The men are charged with a total of  26 terrorism-related counts, including possession of “extremist material” including “graphic images” of the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff.

AA