UH OH

Columbus Man Accused of Trying to Train With ISIS

He was allegedly planning to fly to Afghanistan and train with an ISIS affiliate.

An Ohio man was arrested and charged with allegedly attempting to provide material support to an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan, according to a Thursday press release from the Department of Justice cited by 10TV. Naser Almadaoji, 19, was arrested at the John Glenn International Airport, where he allegedly planned to fly to Afghanistan to train with ISIS Wilayat Khorasan or another ISIS affiliate. An affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint claims that Almadaoji told an individual whom he believed to be in contact with ISIS that he wanted “weapons experts training, planning, executing, hit and run, capturing high value targets, ways to break into homes and avoid security guards. That type of training.”

WDTN News notes that this isn’t the first time Almadaoji allegedly tried to communicate with ISIS. In February, the DOJ said, Almadaoji traveled to Egypt and Jordan to join a terrorist group. In August, he allegedly told another person he believed to be in contact with ISIS that he was “always willing” to help with “projects” in the U.S. “This is the third individual arrested by the FBI on terrorism charges in just over a week,” said Assistant Director Michael McGarrity of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, according to WDTN. “As demonstrated by these arrests—two in Ohio and one in Illinois—the threat posed by terrorism remains extremely serious.”