Nov. 2 (UPI) — An Ohio man on Monday pleaded guilty to attempting to travel to Afghanistan to join the Islamic State terror group.
Naser Almadaoji, an Iraqi-born resident of Beavercreek, Ohio, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
Almadaoji, 22, was arrested at John Glenn International Airport on Oct. 24, 2018, after he purchased a ticket to travel to Astana, Kazakhstan.
Once in Kazakhstan, he planned to be smuggled into Afghanistan to join and receive military training from the terror group’s Afghanistan affiliate the Islamic State-Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K.
He began making travel plans in September 2018 and told an individual he believed to be an ISIS supporter he wanted “weapons experts training, planning and executing, hit and run, capturing high value targets, ways to break into homes and avoid security guards,” according to the complaint.
In February 2018, Almadaoji traveled to Egypt and Jordan in hopes of joining ISIS’s affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula, ISIS Wilayat Sinai, but was unsuccessful.
During communications with an individual posing as an ISIS supporter, Almadoji said he planned to start a conflict between the federal government and anti-government militias in the United States and asked for a guide on how to make a car bomb.
He also recorded a video of himself wearing a headscarf and pledging allegiance to the leader of ISIS and said he was “always willing” to assist ISIS with “projects” in the United States.
