Jury selection is scheduled to begin today in the trial of a soldier accused of planning to bomb a Texas restaurant filled with Fort Hood troops last summer.

Twenty-two-year-old Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo faces up to life in prison if convicted of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and other charges. His trial is in federal court in Waco.

Authorities say Abdo told them was he was planning the attack to avenge the war in Afghanistan.

The Muslim soldier was AWOL from Fort Campbell, Ky., when police detained him at a motel in Killeen last July. Authorities say he was about to get into a cab with a backpack.

Officials say they had tracked Abdo after a gun store owner tipped them off to suspicious purchases.