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Maalik Alim
Jones, 31, "was charged with providing material support to al
Shabaab and receiving training from the terrorist organization,”
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin
said in a statement released by the department.
Prosecutors said the suspect traveled to Somalia, received
military training from al Shabaab, and took up arms as a
terrorist fighter with an organization that has declared the
United States a target.
"Having allegedly sworn allegiance to al Shabaab, a terrorist
organization bent on destroying America, Maalik Jones will now
face American justice in a Manhattan federal court," Manhattan
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
A lawyer for Jones was not listed in online court documents.
Jones has appeared with other al Shabaab fighters in at least
two videos that were recovered from an al Shabaab fighter,
prosecutors said.
In one, he possessed a firearm, and is seen with several al
Shabaab fighters who participated in a June 2015 attack on a
Kenyan Defense Force base where two Kenyan soldiers were killed,
they said in a statement.
The case comes just days after two men from the Middle East who
came to the United States as refugees were arrested on federal
terrorism charges in California and Texas last week for
supporting Islamic militant groups.
There have been more than 75 publicized arrests of U.S.
residents who have allegedly become radicalized by Muslim
militants since 2014.
(Reporting by Eric Walsh and Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas;
Editing by Eric Beech, Bernard Orr)
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