Despite the recent successes of federal law enforcement agencies, the number of attempted attacks underscores these adversaries’ determination.
Since the October 8 arrest of an Afghan man in Oklahoma City for allegedly plotting an Election Day terrorist attack, 11 more individuals have been apprehended or charged by federal and state law enforcement agencies for supporting the Islamic State or Iran.
- In late December, an 18-year-old Egyptian national, Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, a freshman at George Mason University, was arrested for plotting an attack on the Israeli consulate in New York City. According to court documents, Hassan was charged with distributing information related to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction and the intent to murder internationally protected persons.
- In late December, Muhammad Reza Nouri, an officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was charged with the murder of Stephen Troel, an American who was murdered in Iraq on November 7, 2022. Nouri was arrested in Iraq in March 2023. Troel’s murder was likely in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s targeted killing of former IRGC leader Qassem Suleimani in 2020.
- In mid-December, Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi and Mohammad Abedininajafabadi were charged with conspiring to export sensitive technology to Iran that was used in a successful drone attack in Jordan in April, killing three American soldiers. Sadeghi, a naturalized American citizen, was arrested in Massachusetts, and Abedininajafabadi was detained in Italy.
- In early November, Farhad Shakeri, Carlisle Rivera, and Jonathan Loadholt were charged for their participation in a plan to assassinate President-elect Donald J. Trump and other American citizens. Rivera and Loadholt are both American citizens. Shakeri is an IRGC asset based in Tehran who used a network of criminals he met during his 14-year prison sentence to supply the IRGC with operatives. Both Rivera and Loadholt worked under Shakeri’s direction.
- In late November, Erald Alimehmeti, a dual US and Albanian citizen, was arrested in New York for providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and for distributing instructional pamphlets for the making of explosives.
- In early November, Syed Aman, a US citizen and resident of Nassau County, New York, was detained and charged with providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Aman was detained at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, where he planned to travel to Syria to join ISIS.
- In mid-October, Michael Sam Teekaye Jr, of Hanover, Maryland, was arrested at the Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) for providing support to a terrorist organization. According to court documents, Teekaye planned to travel to Somalia to join the Islamic State. If those plans failed, then he intended to attack Americans who supported Israel.
- In early October, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Anas Said outside of his apartment in Houston, Texas, following a seven-year investigation. Said, who was born in Houston, TX, in 1996, was planning to conduct a “9-11 style” attack on the United States. Anas is charged with one count of providing support to the Islamic State of Iraq.
Both the Islamic State and the IRGC have repeatedly tried to target and kill Americans in recent years, and these groups remain a persistent threat.
The Islamic State’s propaganda has proven effective in radicalizing American Muslims. While the group has not conducted a successful attack in the United States since 2017, when Akayed Ullah, a Bangladeshi, partially detonated a pipe bomb in the New York City Subway that injured four people, it has come perilously close on numerous occasions this year.
Despite the Islamic State’s international staying power, the Biden administration seems determined to “wind down” the US military’s presence in Iraq and its mission against the Islamic State. This posture echoes President Barack Obama’s 2011 withdrawal decision that helped spur the Islamic State’s resurgence in the region and rise to power, culminating in the group’s capture of Mosul, Iraq, and declaration of a caliphate in 2014. Should the incoming administration of President Donald Trump follow Biden’s lead, the Iraqi Security Forces will likely not have the capacity to contain a resurgent Islamic State.
In addition, while Iran’s Axis of Resistance has taken a serious beating, thanks to the Israel Defense Force’s effective campaigns against Hezbollah and Hamas and the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad, Iran and its proxies remain a continuous threat to the United States and its citizens. Despite not having an Iranian embassy in the US to provide cover for espionage, the December arrests of Sadeghi and Abedininajafabadi reveal that Iranian covert intelligence officers successfully stole sensitive technology, leading to the death of three Americans. And while Iranian operatives’ attempts to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump failed, Iran’s clandestine case officers will continue searching for targets of opportunity.
Despite setbacks to Iran’s proxy networks, the IRGC’s reach remains a persistent and credible threat to Americans worldwide. Similarly, the Islamic State’s resilience in the face of the West’s decade-long campaign to defeat them underscores the group’s tenacity and determination to kill Americans at home and abroad.
