[국제]Twenty-year-old US Army soldier arrested for help with IS US terrorism

[국제]Twenty-year-old US Army soldier arrested for help with IS US terrorism

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An American soldier was arrested for joining the Islamic State (IS), an extremist terrorist group, to help terrorism.

On the 19th, the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that they had arrested Private Cole James Bridges, 20, a cavalry scout from the 3rd Infantry Division of Fort Stewart, Georgia on charges of terrorism and attempts to kill US troops.

According to reports such as NBC in the United States, Bridges has been engrossed in online propaganda promoting jihadists and their ideology since September 2019. He revealed that he wanted to help the IS by approaching a secret FBI agent disguised as an “IS sympathizer in contact with Middle East IS fighters” online in October last year.

Bridges handed over the covert secret agent a plan of attacking New York City landmarks, including the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan, along with a US Army training manual and military tactical instructions. Later, IS combatants advised on plans to attack and kill US troops stationed in the Middle East and how to avoid attacks by US Special Forces. Earlier this year, he wore body armor under the ISIS flag and sent a video to a secret agent showing symbolic gestures in support of the IS.

If all charges are proven, Bridges can face up to 20 years in prison. The federal court said that Bridges will appear in Georgia’s federal court on the 21st.

Manhattan prosecutor Audrey Strauss criticized “Bridges tried to provide terrorist groups with tactical advice to betray fellow soldiers and kill them,” and “he forbade the soldier’s vow to defend the United States.”

FBI Deputy Commissioner Williams Sweeney Jr. also made a statement: “He plotted to help Islamic groups attack and kill US troops in the Middle East. Fortunately, the person he contacted was a secret agent, and his evil desires could be kept from paying off.” There was” he said.

He then criticized, “Although Bridges could have chosen a life of honorable military service, he gave up and took the path of imprisonment. We will not give up protecting the country in the future.”

YTN PLUS Reporter Jeong Yoon-joo
([email protected])

[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN plus 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]

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