A Pakistani-born man, who believed he was part of an al--Qaeda plot to bomb the Washington subway system, was also training to fight US forces in Afghanistan, according to an FBI affidavit released on Thursday.
Farooque Ahmed, a 34-year-old naturalized US citizen, who was arrested in a sting operation on Wednesday, told undercover agents that he had trained himself in firearms and hand-to-hand combat while preparing to travel to the Pakistan-Afghanistan region as early as January, the document said.
“Ahmed is using his firearms to train for his ultimate goal of traveling to Afghanistan to fight and kill Americans,” FBI agent Charles Dayoub said in the affidavit filed in US federal court as part of a search warrant application.
The FBI believes Ahmed intended to become a martyr in Afghanistan after joining the hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, a once-in-a-lifetime requirement for able-bodied Muslims that Ahmed expected to undertake next month.
FBI officials declined to comment on the contents of the affidavit. Authorities have emphasized the public was never in danger because the suspect was being closely monitored.
Ahmed’s arrest came amid heightened concern about attacks in Europe and the US. US authorities have warned that al-Qaeda is seeking to recruit US citizens for attacks that are smaller in scale and more difficult to detect than the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which killed about 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Ahmed, who moved to the US in 1993 and lived in Ashburn, Virginia, was charged this week with trying to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in planning an attack and attempting to provide material support to help carry out multiple bombings to cause mass casualties.
From April to Oct. 25, Ahmed allegedly conducted surveillance, videotaped, photographed and drew diagrams of Washington landmarks.
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