(NBC) ISIS-K, the Afghan branch of the Islamic State, directed an Afghan man’s foiled U.S. Election Day terror plot, according to two senior U.S. officials briefed on the matter.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, was arrested by the FBI last week in Oklahoma and is accused of planning to purchase two AK-47 rifles, 10 magazines and ammunition, and carry out a mass shooting attack on Election Day targeting large groups of people, according to court documents and Tawhedi’s alleged statements to the FBI after his arrest.
ISIS-K was responsible for a deadly attack at Crocus City Hall near Moscow, a concert venue, in March that left 130 people dead and hundreds injured, and other attacks. The revelation that a foreign terrorist organization was in communication with a would-be attacker inside the U.S. makes the alleged Election Day plot different from most terrorism cases in the past decade, most of which involved people self-radicalized online or self-directed attempts.
