Federal charges have been filed against an Ohio man, accusing him of going to Syria to get terrorist training, then returning to the United States with the intention of killing police or soldiers.
Authorities accuse Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, 23, of Columbus, of leaving the U.S. in April 2014 "for the purpose of training and fighting with terrorists in Syria."
They say Mohamud, a naturalized citizen, got a passport and bought a one-way ticket to Greece. He did not take a connecting flight from Istanbul to Athens and instead "completed pre-arranged plans to travel to Syria," they alleged.
Once there, they say, he got training in firing weapons, breaking into houses, explosives, and hand-to-hand combat.
After returning to the U.S. in June 2014, he allegedly told someone here, who was not named in court papers, that he was "instructed by a cleric in the organization to return to the United States and commit an act of terrorism" and that he wanted to target "armed forces, police officers, or any uniformed individuals."
He told another person, also not identified, that "he wanted to go to a military base in Texas and kill three or four Americans execution style," the court papers say.
He was arrested and detained on state charges on Feb. 21 and will be transferred to federal custody. Officials say his brother also went to Syria, in 2013, and was killed fighting for the Al-Nusra Front.
