WASHINGTON – FBI agents in California have arrested a father and son after the younger man allegedly admitted that he attended an Al Qaeda-run training camp in Pakistan and was sent to carry out terrorist attacks in America.

Hamid Hayat and his father, Umer Hayat, of Lodi, Calif., were arrested late Sunday and are being held on charges of making false statements to the FBI, officials said yesterday.

Two imams in the Lodi area have also been detained on immigration charges in connection with the case, and FBI investigators are trying to determine whether the arrests are evidence of a broader network of Al Qaeda supporters in the agricultural area south of Sacramento, officials said.

After first denying any connection to terrorist groups or militant training camps, Hamid Hayat told FBI agents that he spent six months in 2003 and 2004 at a Pakistan camp “run by Al Qaeda” that provided training in weapons and explosives, according to an FBI agent.

The affidavit also says that “Hamid advised that he specifically requested to come to the United States to carry out his Jihadi mission. Potential targets for attack would include hospitals and large food stores.”

Mr. Hayat’s father also initially denied any connection to terrorism but, after being confronted with a videotape of his son’s confession, admitted that he toured several militant camps in Pakistan and that is son had received training at one.

Hamid Hayat first came to the FBI’s attention on May 29. While on board a flight from South Korea to San Francisco, authorities discovered that Mr. Hayat’s name appeared on the government’s “no-fly list,” according to the affidavit. The plane was diverted to Japan for refueling, but Mr. Hayat was allowed to continue to America after an initial FBI interview.

Once in California, Mr. Hayat was interviewed again June 3 and denied attending training camps or attending a “jihad madrassah,” or radical religious school. He agreed to submit to a polygraph in Sacramento the next day, but showed signs of deception and eventually admitted attending a madrassah and training camp, the FBI said.

He said those in attendance at the camp were specifically trained on how to kill Americans. During his weapons training, Mr. Hayat told the FBI that “photos of various high-ranking U.S. political figures, including President Bush, would be pasted onto their targets.”

Mr. Hayat said he “observed hundreds of attendees from various parts of the world at this camp,” and that they rotated depending on their level of training. They were given a choice of where to carry out jihad – America, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, and elsewhere.

Umer Hayat, the father, told the FBI that the camp was “the Tamal training camp near Rawalpindi, Pakistan, which is operated by Maulana Fazlur Rehman.” Mr. Rehman is a friend of the Hayat family, and one of Hamid Hayat’s grandfathers also runs a madrassah, Umer Hayat told the FBI.

One law enforcement source cautioned yesterday that the FBI has not confirmed many aspects of Hamid Hayat’s account.