Three men were arrested on Friday in connection with a plot to bomb a Kansas apartment complex and mosque, federal officials said

Curtis Allen, Gavin Wright, and Patrick Stein face a charge of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction to detonate bombs at an apartment complex in Garden City, Kansas, where Somali immigrants live and worship, a statement from the US Justice Department said.

"The attack was planned for the day after election day," US Attorney Tom Beall said in a Friday-afternoon press conference.

The men planned to release a manifesto they hoped would “wake people up,” Beall said. The three men were part of a militia that referred to itself as the Crusaders, investigators said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations responded to the charges, asking the federal government to step up protections for mosques.

"Given this alleged plan to attack a Kansas mosque, the two other hate incidents reported today against Islamic institutions in Michigan and New Jersey, and the overall spike in anti-mosque incidents nationwide, state and federal authorities should offer stepped-up protection to local communities," executive director, Nihad Awad, said in an emailed statement to Business Insider.

"We ask our nation's political leaders, and particularly political candidates, to reject the growing Islamophobia in our nation," he added.

The FBI had been tracking the men since February as part of an eight-month investigation that revealed a "hidden culture of hatred and violence,” Beall said.

The men’s plot appeared to be premeditated as they conducted surveillance on potential targets and stockpiled firearms and ammunition, federal officials said.

If convicted of the terror plot, the suspects could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Revelations of the possible attack come amid a heated presidential election in which Republican candidate Donald Trump has made incendiary remarks about immigrants, and has vowed to impose a ban to keep some Muslims from entering the US.

Earlier this year a report from CAIR found a total of 78 violent attacks occurred at mosques in 2015 — up from 34 in 2014. The organization has been tracking the incidents since 2009 and said the number of attacks in 2016 could make it "one of the worst years" on record.

Here's the Justice Department's full statement: