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 US to join him in what both hoped would be martyrdom, according to documents filed in US federal court.
Aws Mohammed Younis al-Jayab, 23, of Sacramento, described his experience fighting against Syrian government soldiers in heroic terms and in 2013 promised 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, federal authorities said.
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 in late 2013 and early 2014 and lying to US authorities about his travels. Al-Hardan faces up to 25 years in prison and is charged with attempting to provide material support for terrorists.
Al-Jayab’s attorney on Friday criticized US politicians who he said “have grossly mischaracterized the nature and scope of this case” to tie it to the debate over whether the US is doing enough to screen refugees.
“There is no threat that this man poses or no indication that he’s engaged in any activity since his return two years ago. The only activities that were interrupted were his studies and his work,” defense attorney Ben Galloway said outside the courtroom.
US Magistrate Judge Carolyn Delaney ordered al-Jayab to be held without bail.
It was not clear how al-Jayab and al-Hardan met online, although the FBI affidavit describes at least one apparently mutual acquaintance.
The criminal complaint against al-Jayab recounts a series of communications with different people, none of whom were identified.
One called “Individual I” is al-Hardan, said Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the US attorney in Sacramento.
Federal authorities say al-Jayab emigrated from Syria to the US 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 US in January 2014 and lived in Sacramento. He has been a computer science major at a Sacramento community college since last fall.
Al-Jayab and al-Hardan communicated in April 2013, and al-Hardan expressed interest in fighting in Syria.
Al-Jayab said he had already fought in Syria, starting when he turned 16, 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.
Authorities say al-Jayab fought twice in Syria, including with a group later affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) 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 send him to prison.
Al-Hardan, 24, appeared in a Houston federal court on Friday. Prosecutors charged him with attempting to support the Islamic State and accused him of providing resources to the group beginning in about May 2014.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in