The Federal Prosecutors charged a Kenyan man with plotting to carryout an attack in the style of Sept.11 at the direction of the Al-Shabaab, the principal wing of Al-Qaeda operating in East Africa’s Somalia.
According to the U.S. prosecutor in Manhattan, the Kenyan national terror operative identified as Cholo Abdi Abdullah under the direction of Al-Shabaab conspired to hijack an aircraft and subsequently carry a Sept.11-style kind of an attack in the United States.
Initial reports indicate that Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 30 years old, arrived in the Philippines in 2016 to train as a pilot and while at it researched how to hijack an aircraft in preparation for crashing a commercial aircraft into a building in the U.S. soil.
Manhattan federal prosecutors while prosecuting the case noted that Abdullah acted at the direction of an unidentified senior Al-Shabaab commander also believed to be responsible for planning a 2019 attack at a Nairobi hotel.
Abdullah was charged on Wednesday 16th December 2020 with providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, conspiring to murder U.S. nationals, conspiring to commit aircraft piracy and other crimes and thus he faces up to life in prison.
Abdullah was arrested in the Philippines on local charges in July 2019 and transferred to U.S. law enforcement Tuesday. He pleaded not guilty Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan.
The latest arrests of Abdullah who has ties with Al-Qaeda’s Al-Shabaab is an indication of the group strive to achieve the ultimate goal of striking the U.S. interests and more on their soil and catch the glimpse of the international media in reminiscent 9/11 attack. According to prosecutor’s charges, Abdullah visited a website with jihadist propaganda about the Sept. 11 attacks while preparing to undertake the task ahead.
The Al-Qaeda aligned terrorist group continues to launch gruesome asymmetric attacks on targets in Somalia and its neighbors. Though counterterrorism efforts have significantly disrupted the terrorist group with its home base in Somalia, the group however is not completely degraded conducting dozens of attacks in East Africa countries (especially Kenya and Somalia) per month.
The U.S. has a number of troops in Somalia with main mission of training local soldiers, especially the country’s commando unit, to fight Al-Shabaab on their own. In recent years, the U.S. has dramatically ramped up airstrikes against the terrorist group’s leadership and thus in retaliatory Al-Shabaab remains eager at attacking U.S. interests besides its allies.
