(AFP) A US soldier with links to neo-Nazis plotted to have Islamic extremists attack his unit in Turkey in hopes of sparking a new “10-year war” in the Middle East, the Justice Department charged Monday.
An indictment unsealed in New York said Ethan Phelan Melzer, 22, was serving in the US Army in Vincenza, Italy, and expecting to go to Turkey when he offered an FBI informant he believed had ties to jihadist groups detailed information on his unit’s movements last month.
In online chatrooms for the neo-Nazi and satanist Order of the Nine Angles, or O9A, he detailed their planned location and armaments in Turkey, suggesting attackers could easily overcome the force, according to the indictment.
Melzer made clear he was supporting a “jihadist” attack on the unit, and that he himself might die.
