US Citizen Who Traveled to Syria Charged with Supporting Terrorism

The US government has arrested and charged a man who trained in Syria and returned to the United States with the goal of carrying out a terrorist attack.

The New York Times reports that 23-year-old Abdirahman Sheikh Mohamud planned to attack US military targets and personnel. The federal government has recently announced a number of cases where people were charged with trying to support IS or carry out an attack.

However, this is the first case where a US citizen seems to have actually contacted and worked with IS. In the other cases, the federal government motivated people to build bombs, often providing the material and know how.

The Times says that one of Mohamud's possible targets would have been a military installation in Texas. Mohamud's brother also appears to have been radicalized, and he died fighting for the Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra. The Times notes that court documents pertaining to the case are not explicit in stating whether Mohamud was urged by IS or Nusra to carry out the attack.