ISIS-Ok, the Afghan department of the Islamic State, directed an Afghan man’s foiled U.S. Election Day terror plot, based on two senior U.S. officers briefed on the matter.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, was arrested by the FBI final week in Oklahoma and is accused of planning to buy two AK-47 rifles, 10 magazines and ammunition, and perform a mass taking pictures assault on Election Day focusing on massive teams of individuals, based on court docket paperwork and Tawhedi’s alleged statements to the FBI after his arrest.
ISIS-Ok was liable for a lethal assault at Crocus Metropolis Corridor close to Moscow, a live performance venue, in March that left 130 individuals useless and lots of injured, and different assaults. The revelation {that a} overseas terrorist group was in communication with a would-be attacker contained in the U.S. makes the alleged Election Day plot totally different from most terrorism circumstances prior to now decade, most of which concerned individuals self-radicalized on-line or self-directed makes an attempt.
The charging paperwork say Tawhedi informed the FBI that he was speaking with an individual named “Malik” and that he knew “Malik” was affiliated with ISIS. Tawhedi has not but been arraigned, and no plea has been entered.
When requested about ISIS-Ok’s direct involvement within the case, a FBI spokesperson declined to remark.
Tawhedi had labored as a safety guard for the CIA in Afghanistan. He arrived within the U.S. in September 2021 on a particular immigrant visa a month after the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan, court docket paperwork stated.
Tawhedi had handed two rounds of vetting — as each Afghan resettled within the U.S. undergoes a rigorous screening and vetting course of no matter which company they beforehand labored with — and no derogatory info was detected, a senior administration official aware of the small print beforehand informed NBC Information.
Tawhedi’s mom, who lives in Afghanistan, is believed to be an ISIS sympathizer, two U.S. officers stated.
NBC Information was first to report {that a} member of the family of Tawhedi was arrested and charged by French regulation enforcement this weekend with planning to conduct an assault on a soccer stadium or a shopping mall in that nation, based on the Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Workplace in Paris.
In that case, the Afghan charged was 22 years previous.
Within the France case, regulation enforcement officers informed NBC Information that they had opened a preliminary investigation into a possible terror plot in France on Sept. 27. Then on Oct. 8, sooner or later after Tawhedi’s arrest in Oklahoma, the 22-year-old and two different unnamed individuals had been arrested in Toulouse and Fronton, within the Haute-Garonne area of southwestern France the place they lived.
The 2 different individuals had been questioned and launched.
A French regulation enforcement official stated the investigations revealed “the existence of a deliberate violent motion focusing on individuals in a soccer stadium or a shopping mall instigated by one among them, age 22, of Afghan nationality.” Investigators additionally discovered proof that “set up[es] radicalization and adherence to the ideology of the Islamic State.”
The emergence of ISIS-Ok as a lethal terrorist group plotting and directing assaults worldwide has been a rising drawback, a number of U.S. officers have informed NBC Information.
Along with the Crocus Metropolis Corridor assault, the group launched an assault in Iran this 12 months that killed dozens, whereas different high-profile assaults have been disrupted in Europe.
Advocates for Afghans who labored for the U.S. authorities say Tawhedi is just not consultant of the big group of Afghans who fought alongside Individuals at nice private threat, and so they concern his case might tarnish the popularity of Afghans who’ve resettled right here after the U.S. withdrawal.
“One unhealthy apple is just not reflective of the 1000’s of Afghan veterans who gave their lives and limbs for our nation within the struggle towards terrorism and who stay devoted to retaining America protected,” stated Geeta Bakshi, a former CIA counterterrorism officer and founding father of FAMIL, a nonprofit group that helps Afghan veterans within the U.S.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. Extra from NBC Information:
