Syrian refugee in US arrested for plotting church attack

A Syrian refugee in the US was arrested Wednesday onsuspicion of planning an attack against a Pennsylvania church in the name ofthe Islamic State group, the Justice Department said.

Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 21, who arrived in the country as arefugee from Syria in August 2016, intended to target a church in the NorthSide neighborhood of Pittsburgh, assistant attorney general John Demers andPittsburgh federal prosecutor Scott Brady said in a statement.

   

“Court documents show Mustafa Alowemer planned toattack a church in the name of ISIS, which could have killed or injured manypeople,” Michael McGarrity, of the FBI’s counter-terrorism division, saidin the statement.

“The FBI takes threats to churches and other religiousinstitutions extremely seriously and will use all our resources to stoppotential terrorist attacks against them,” he said.

The suspect allegedly passed on documents about the constructionand the use of explosives to a man he believed to be an IS group sympathizer,though he turned out to be an FBI employee.

In addition to contacting the man through social media andstating his support for the IS group, Alowemer had met with him four timessince April, according to the statement.

He is alleged to have handwritten a 10-point plan about howhe personally intended to bring explosives in a backpack, and marked thechurch’s access areas on maps.

Alowemer planned to meet with the agent he thought was hisco-conspirator Wednesday for the last time before the would-be attack in July,the Department of Justice statement said.

He was charged with one count of attempting to providematerial support to a foreign terrorist organization and two counts ofdistributing information relating to an explosive or weapon of massdestruction.

Eleven people were shot and killed in an anti-Semitic attackat a synagogue in Pittsburgh in October, the deadliest attack against Jewishpeople in the modern history of the United States.

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