Ohio Man Charged With Providing Material Support to Terrorists
He's the first known American alleged to have trained with ISIS and return home.
— -- An Ohio man who allegedly sympathized with ISIS and trained with another terrorist group in Syria has been arrested by federal authorities after returning and looking to launch attacks in the U.S. homeland, the Justice Department announced today.
Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, 23, of Columbus, left the United States in April 2014 for the purpose of training and fighting with terrorists in Syria, according to the Justice Department. He had become a naturalized citizen only two months earlier.
Mohamed wanted to join ISIS and he previously posted ISIS propaganda online, but he has been charged with providing material support to al Nusrah, an Al Qaeda affiliate operating in Syria, according to the Justice Department.
Once in Syria, terrorists trained him in shooting weapons, breaking into houses, using explosives and engaging in hand-to-hand combat, charging documents allege. A radical cleric then instructed him to return to the United States and commit an act of terrorism, the documents say.
Mohamud returned to the United States in June 2014 with a plan to attack a military facility or a U.S. prison, according to the charging documents.
“Mohamud talked about doing something big in the United States,” the documents say. “He wanted to go to a military base in Texas and kill three or four American soldiers execution style.”
When Mohamud left for Syria, his brother was already there fighting with terrorists, but his brother has since been killed, according to the Justice Department.
Mohamud was initially arrested in February on state charges. A federal grand jury has now indicted him for 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.