Al-Qaeda trained Ohio man planned to ‘kill US soldiers’

The man, Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, 23, travelled to Syria to fight with an al-Qaeda affiliate and he has been charged over alleged plans to carry out a terror attack on the US military. Mohamud allegedly gained training with al-Nusra Front and was instructed by a radical cleric to carry out an attack in the US.

He stands accused of telling another man he wanted to kill American soldiers "execution-style" at a military base and faces charges of material support of terrorism and making false statements.

Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said in a statement, that identifying and neutralising the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters who return to the United States was one of the National Security Division's highest priorities.

International media report that it is the latest example of US officials bringing charges against those allegedly helping Islamic State (IS) and other militant groups.

Mohamud who is originially from Ohio, had left the US in April 2014 shortly after becoming a naturalised citizen, travelling to Syria after a flight to Istanbul, according to prosecutors and his brother, Aden, had been killed while fighting with the group in Syria.

The accused allegedly told two unnamed people when he returned to the US in June 2014 that he wanted to attack a military base or prison, killing three or four people "execution style". He told one person he had received weapons, explosives and hand-to-hand combat training, and the other he had gone through physical fitness and guarded a camp at night, according to the indictment.

He reportedly sent videos of himself in Syria to an unnamed person. In one video, for instance, he pointed to a gun in a holster on his hip and in another, he stood in front of a white house with a black flag on it.

Mohamud was initially arrested in February in Columbus by local law enforcement and transferred into federal custody on Thursday after charges were brought by a grand jury.