Feds: Ohio Man Planned Prison Terror Strike

He went to Syria weeks after getting US passport
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 17, 2015 2:33 AM CDT
Feds: Ohio Man Planned Prison Terror Strike
This undated photo provided by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office shows Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud.   (AP Photo/Franklin County Sheriff’s Office)

An Ohio man who allegedly planned a terror strike on a US prison now faces spending decades in one. Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud was indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday on charges of supporting a terrorist organization and lying to the FBI, reports the Columbus Dispatch. According to the indictment, the 23-year-old, who was born in Somalia, left the US "for the purpose of training and fighting with terrorists in Syria" in April last year, just weeks after he became an American citizen and received a US passport.

Federal investigators say Mohamud received combat and explosives training from the Nusra Front al-Qaeda affiliate while in Syria and returned to the US in June last year, days after his half-brother, who traveled to Syria in 2013, was killed in combat, reports the Dispatch. The indictment says the Columbus resident returned to the US on the orders of a cleric who instructed him to plan an attack on a prison or military base. Mohamud, who was arrested in February, faces up to 38 years in prison if found guilty on all counts, the Guardian reports. (Earlier this year, another Ohio man was arrested over an alleged plot to attack the US Capitol.)

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