- U.S. citizen Harafa Hussein Abdi, 41, of Minneapolis, has been charged with supporting ISIS after receiving military training at a terrorist camp in Somalia.
- Abdi made terrorist threats against New York City and encouraged others to attack the United States, according to an unsealed criminal complaint.
- Abdi was arrested abroad and later confessed to the FBI about his involvement with the designated terrorist organization.
A Minnesota man has been charged with supporting ISIS after receiving military training at a terrorist camp in Somalia.
U.S. citizen Harafa Hussein Abdi, 41, of Minneapolis, was detained overseas and transported to the United States on Thursday, the Department of Justice announced.
‘Mister. “Abdi left his country to join ISIS, trained as a fighter, and actively assisted in the group’s propaganda efforts to spread its vile ideology,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Department of Homeland Security Division. Justice.
While training with ISIS fighters in Somalia, Abdi allegedly carried an AK-47 and threatened to attack civilians in New York City, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York said in a statement.
Abdi’s messages discovered by security services revealed a photograph of him holding the assault rifle.
Abdi’s messages discovered by security services revealed a photograph of him holding an AK-47 assault rifle.
An image taken from Abdi’s social media shows a hand with the index finger extended, a gesture commonly used by ISIS supporters.
Abdi allegedly worked in ISIS’s ‘media’ wing, where he filmed footage for distribution by a pro-ISIS media outlet.
He also encouraged others to carry out such attacks by sending audio clips of him rapping about shooting and bombing people in New York, the unsealed criminal complaint alleges.
“The hollow points make a hole in your Catholic vest and cut off his head and let it rest on his Catholic chest,” Abdi allegedly said in an audio clip about the New York City attack in January 2017.
‘We are going to continue the jihad, we will fly across America on our way to shoot up New York.
‘They’re trying to shut this thing down. We will not go. “We’re going to blow up New York,” she reportedly added.
Abdi allegedly sent messages on social media, encouraging others to carry out acts of terrorism against the United States.
In other communications on social media, he described how he had made ‘hijra’, an Arabic term used by ISIS supporters to refer to traveling abroad to join ISIS and participate in jihad, states with criminal complaint.
In an image on his social media page, Abdi allegedly used an image of flames rising from an abdominal explosion, forming the shape of a hand with the index finger extended, a gesture commonly used by ISIS supporters.
Abdi is believed to have fled the ISIS camp in 2017 after his relationship with the group’s leaders deteriorated.
He was initially imprisoned by the group, but escaped and traveled to East Africa, where he was arrested by law enforcement authorities, the complaint against him states.
Once in US custody, Abdi admitted in an interview with the FBI that he had joined the training camp in Somalia, he added.
He also allegedly identified himself in a propaganda video he helped film at the training camp while carrying an AK-47 assault rifle, promoting ISIS and urging others to join and fight on its behalf.
Abdi is charged with conspiring to provide and provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization; conspiring to receive and receive military-type training from a designated foreign terrorist organization.
He faces up to fifty-five years in prison.