WASHINGTON – Jose Padilla, an American citizen held in a Navy brig as an enemy combatant for more than three years, was charged yesterday with being part of a North American terror cell that sent money and recruits overseas to “murder, maim, and kidnap.”

However, absent from the indictment were the sensational allegations made earlier by top Justice Department officials: that Mr. Padilla sought to blow up American hotels and apartment buildings and planned an attack on America with a radiological “dirty bomb.”

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wouldn’t say why none of those allegations were included in the indictment, commenting only on the charges that were returned by a Miami grand jury against Mr. Padilla and four other alleged members of a terror cell.

“The indictment alleges that Padilla traveled overseas to train as a terrorist with the intention of fighting a violent jihad,” Mr. Gonzales said.

The charges are the latest twist in a case pitting the Bush administration’s claim that the war on terrorism gives the government extraordinary powers to protect its citizens, against those who say the government can’t be allowed to label Americans “enemy combatants” and hold them indefinitely without charges that can be fought in court.

Mr. Padilla will be transferred to the Justice Department from military custody and will be held at a federal prison in Miami. Mr. Gonzales said the case would go to trial in September, in Miami.

Mr. Padilla could face life in prison if convicted of being part of a conspiracy to murder, maim, and kidnap overseas. The other two charges, providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy, carry maximum prison terms of 15 years each.

The indictment does not say Mr. Padilla belonged to Al Qaeda. Instead, it asserts he was recruited into a terror support cell that was raising money and recruiting operatives beginning in 1993 to fight for radical Islamic causes in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Somalia, and elsewhere.