A man from Minnesota was arrested on Friday for ties with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organization and was charged with one count of trying to provide "material support and resources" to them, the US Justice Department announced.
Abdisatar Ahmed Hassan, from Minneapolis, was accused of joining ISIS by travelling to Somalia from his home state on two separate occasions in December of last year, but was ultimately not able to do so, the Department added.
Hassan claimed that he was visiting family in an African country, but the Justice Department concluded that he had no relatives there. He appeared at the District of Minnesota on Friday and is in custody until there is a formal detention hearing on the case.
Hassan supported the foreign terrorist organization publicly through social media posts and was in contact with a Facebook account called the Manjaniq Media Center, according to an investigation conducted by the FBI alongside the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force. The Justice Department said the Facebook account encouraged people to travel to join ISIS.
Twice in February, Hassan posted videos on social media of himself driving, with a small ISIS flag being seen inside the vehicle, the FBI said.
Praising the New Orleans terrorist attack
The FBI investigation also revealed that Hassan had praised the terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who committed a truck ramming attack in New Orleans at the beginning of this year, where 14 people were killed. An ISIS flag was on the trailer hitch of the truck. Two Israelis were also wounded in the ramming attack.
FBI Assistant Special Agent Alethea Duncan said that the FBI didn't believe Jabbar was acting alone. Jabbar, who was a US Army veteran, was reportedly inspired by the terrorist organization.
Jabbar had reportedly tried to use a transmitter to detonate two explosives near the attack as well.
Danielle Greyman-Kennard, Corrine Baum, and Reuters contributed to this report.