Feds: Refugees used social media to plan terror fight
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — An Iraqi man bragged about his experience fighting in Syria and the skills he developed as a teenage insurgent as he urged a fellow Iraqi refugee in the U.S. to join him in what both hoped would be martyrdom, according to documents filed in federal court.
Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, 23, of Sacramento described his experience fighting against Syrian government soldiers in heroic terms and promised in 2013 he would train Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan of Houston in how to use weapons and sneak into Syria to join the fight, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed in federal court in Sacramento.
The two Iraqi-born Palestinians used social media to discuss their plans, according to federal authorities. The communications provided the link that led to terrorism-related charges against the men this week.
Al-Jayab faces up to eight years in prison on charges of traveling to Syria to fight and lying to U.S. authorities about his travels. Al-Hardan is charged with attempting to provide material support for terrorists.
There is no allegation the two were planning an attack in the U.S., nor is it clear how the two met online.
The criminal complaint against Al-Jayab recounts a series of communications with different people, none of whom is identified. One called "Individual I" is Al Hardan, according to Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in Sacramento.
Federal authorities say Al-Jayab emigrated from Syria to the United States as a refugee in October 2012, living in Tucson, Arizona, and Milwaukee until November 2013, when he went back overseas to fight. He returned to the United States in January 2014 and lived in Sacramento.
Al-Jayab and Al Hardan communicated in April 2013, and Al Hardan expressed interested in fighting in Syria.
"O God, grant us martyrdom for your sake while engaged in fighting and not retreating; a martyrdom that would make you satisfied with us," Al-Jayab wrote to Al Hardan, according to court documents.
Al-Jayab said he had already fought in Syria, starting when he turned 16 years old, according to messages between the two men quoted in court documents. He promised to provide weapons training to Al Hardan and advised him on how he would be assigned to the battlefield once he arrived in Syria.
"We will make your abilities very strong," he promised Al Hardan.
"God willing, you will have your chance to shoot," he added in a later message. "The most shots I made with it in my life was in the biggest battle I participated in. Seven magazines in one breath. ... Just shooting, spraying, spraying."
He recounted how he helped execute three Syrian government soldiers, according to the document, including one soldier who was so frightened he forgot to unlock the safety on his rifle and was cut down with shots to the chest and head.
Authorities say Al-Jayab fought twice in Syria, including with a group later affiliated with Islamic State between November 2013 and January 2014. He told authorities he had traveled to Turkey to visit his grandmother, which prosecutors say was a lie that could draw him up to eight years in prison.
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