A federal grand jury on Thursday charged a 23-year-old Ohio man with attempting to support the agenda of terrorists after he flew to Syria, received training from a terror group and returned to the U.S. with a plan to attack military officers and police.
The jury charged Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, a U.S. citizen, with one count of attempting to provide and providing material support to terrorists, one count of attempting to provide and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and one count of making false statements to the FBI, according to a Department of Justice statement.
Court documents show that Mr. Mohamud returned to the U.S. in June, two months after departing for Syria to train and fight with terrorists operating in that country. While in Syria, Mr. Mohamud attended a military-type training camp where he learned to shoot weapons, break into houses, use explosives and participate in hand-to-hand combat.
Prosecutors said Mr. Mohamud embarked on the journey because he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his brother, Abdifatah Aden, who fought for al Qaeda offshoot al Nusra in Syria until he was killed in battle. Court documents show that Mr. Mohamed was partial to supporting the Islamic State.
“Mohamud wanted to kill Americans, and specifically wanted to target armed forces, police officers, or any uniformed individuals,” the documents state. “Mohamud’s plan was to attack a military facility, and his backup plan was to attack a prison.”
Court documents show that Mr. Mohamud wanted to do “something big,” like “go to a military base in Texas and kill three or four American soldiers execution-style.” Prosecutors allege that he sought help from a peer and associate in launching that attack.
Mr. Mohamud is one of several individuals who have been arrested for trying to support terrorist organizations operating in Iraq and Syria over the past two months.
Rep. Michael McCaul, chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, called Thursday on the Obama administration to ramp up its defenses against U.S. citizens who have traveled to foreign countries to support terrorists and then returned to the United States with plans to attack other Americans.
“The director of National Intelligence recently said around 40 U.S. residents have joined extremists in Syria and are already back in our country, an alarming admission that suggests there are gaps in our defenses,” Mr. McCaul said. “The Obama administration must ramp up its efforts to keep more Americans from traveling to terrorist sanctuaries — now — and must do everything possible to keep these terrorists from returning to the United States. I launched a bipartisan Task Force to fully examine this threat, and I urge the White House’s cooperation in determining how we can better combat it.”
The arrest of Mr. Mohamud highlights “the grave threat” that Americans who travel abroad to fight with terrorists pose to the United States when they return to the country, Mr. McCaul said. Terrorist groups such as the Islamic State and al Qaeda have been “luring Americans to the combat zone in Syria and Iraq” and those Americans are now returning to their homeland “with the training and motivation” to bring terror, he said.
• Maggie Ybarra can be reached at mybarra@washingtontimes.com.
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