CNN
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A former member of the Michigan Army National Guard has been arrested after he allegedly tried to carry out a plan to conduct a mass shooting at a US military base in Michigan on behalf of the ISIS terrorist organization, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, 19, was arrested on Tuesday, which authorities say was the scheduled day of the attack, after he visited an area near the military base and launched a drone in support of the attack plan, according to the Justice Department.
Said allegedly planned to attack the Army’s Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, which is located in a Detroit suburb and manages the Army’s supply chain for tanks. According to federal prosecutors, Said offered to help undercover law enforcement officers carry out the attack by training them to use firearms and make Molotov cocktails and by providing armor-piercing ammunitions and magazines for the attack.
Said has been charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and with distributing information related to a destructive device. Court documents did not list an attorney for Said.
Said spent two years in the Michigan Army National Guard until he was discharged in December, according to court documents.
Said “was involuntarily discharged for failing to complete initial entry requirements,” a Michigan National Guard spokesperson told CNN in an email.
“The Michigan National Guard is an organization built on a foundation of trust, integrity and accountability,” the statement said. “We hold all members to the highest professional standards, and when those standards are not met, we act in accordance with the law and our internal policies.”
An affidavit filed in the case describes Said’s monthslong correspondence with undercover FBI employees whom he thought were fellow ISIS supporters, and his alleged meticulous planning for the attack. Said flew a drone over the Army base last November to scout entry and exit points and vehicles entering the base, the court document says.
Said also allegedly suggested storing weapons in a commercial storage locker next to the base and spoke of his ability to handle a rifle because of his National Guard training, the affidavit says.
Said did try, but ultimately failed, to ensure he wasn’t being ensnared by law enforcement. He admitted in December to leaving an Apple AirTag in the undercover personnel’s car to track their movements, according to the affidavit. But whatever suspicions Said may have had apparently faded as he continued with his alleged attack plot.
“The arrest of this former Soldier is a sobering reminder of the importance of our counterintelligence efforts to identify and disrupt those who would seek to harm our nation,” Brig. Gen. Rhett Cox, the commanding general of Army Counterintelligence Command, said in a statement.
ISIS, or the Islamic State, once controlled large swathes of Iraq and Syria. In the more than 10 years since it emerged, people claiming allegiance to ISIS or its affiliates in Asia and Africa have conducted numerous terror attacks in cities across the world. Though military strikes from the US and its allies have weakened the terror group, it has proved resilient.
An ISIS flag was found in the truck of an Army veteran who carried out a terror attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day that killed 14 people. And the arrest of eight people who crossed into the US from Mexico — and whom US officials believe have connections to ISIS — heightened concerns about a terror threat to the homeland.
This story has been updated with additional details.
