A U.S. soldier was sentenced on Friday to 14 years in prison for trying to help ISIS in plotting an ambush on U.S. troops stationed in the Middle East, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Bridges joined the U.S. Army in 2019 and was assigned as a cavalry scout in the third infantry division based in Fort Stewart, Georgia, according to the DOJ.
Prior to joining the army, Bridges had researched and consumed online propaganda promoting jihadists and voiced his support for ISIS, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, and jihad on social media, it stated.
In October 2020, Bridges began communicating online with an FBI covert employee, who was posing as someone in contact with ISIS fighters in the Middle East. He told the person that he was frustrated with the U.S. military and expressed his desire to help ISIS, according to the DOJ.
Bridges then provided training and guidance to purported ISIS fighters, including parts of the U.S. Army training manual. The DOJ said that he gave the information “with the understanding that the materials would be used by ISIS in future attack planning.”
In December 2020, Bridges allegedly provided instructions on how to attack U.S. forces in the Middle East, including providing a diagram of military maneuvers aiming to help ISIS fighters “maximize the lethality of future attacks on U.S. troops,” the DOJ said.
The DOJ alleged that Bridges also shared advice on how to effectively fortify an ISIS encampment for an ambush of U.S. Special Forces. Among other suggestions, he advised ISIS fighters on how to wire certain buildings with explosives to kill U.S. troops.
In January 2021, he sent a video of himself wearing U.S. Army body armor, standing in front of a flag used by ISIS fighters, and “making a gesture symbolic of support for ISIS.” In another video, Bridges used a voice manipulator to read a propaganda speech in support of the anticipated ambush by ISIS on U.S. troops, it stated.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said that Bridges’s actions amounted to “a betrayal of the worst order.”
“Cole Bridges used his U.S. Army training to pursue a horrifying goal: the brutal murder of his fellow service members in a carefully plotted ambush,” Williams said in a statement.
“Bridges sought to attack the very soldiers he was entrusted to protect and, making this abhorrent conduct even more troubling, was eager to help people he believed were members of a deadly foreign terrorist organization plan this attack,” he added.
The DOJ alleged that Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, went so far as to liquidate his family’s assets and resettle his family members overseas in preparation for the attack. He also allegedly acquired AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition to carry out the attack in the United States.
