A former National Guard soldier has been charged with plotting to help the Islamic State group and contemplating a Fort Hood-style attack against the U.S. military.
(FOX)- Mohamed Jalloh, 26, of Sterling, made a brief initial appearance Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Alexandria. A judge ordered Jalloh held without bond pending a detention hearing next week.
His lawyer, Ashraf Nubani, declined comment.
Jalloh told a government informant he quit the Army National Guard after hearing lectures from radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, according to an FBI affidavit. Cotton Puryear, a spokesman for the Virginia Army National Guard, said Jalloh served as a specialist from 2009 until 2015, when he was honorably discharged.
A court affidavit spells out a three-month sting operation in which Jalloh said he was thinking about carrying out an attack similar to the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, which left 13 people dead. Authorities say the sting operation began after Jalloh made contact on his own with Islamic State members in Africa earlier this year.
Jalloh’s case is the most recent of several in which men from the northern Virginia area just outside Washington have been charged with attempting to support the Islamic State group.
Court records indicate the FBI saw Jalloh buying an assault rifle Saturday at a gun shop in Chantilly. The affidavit does not say if authorities believe Jalloh planned to use the rifle himself or bought it on behalf of an informant. He was arrested Sunday.