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On Monday, 1 July 2019 Kenyan national Cholo Abdi Abdullah was in his room in the Rasaca Hotel in the city of Iba, northwest of Manila, when he was arrested. In his possession, police found a pistol, a homemade bomb and a hand grenade. Yet Abdullah's primary aim involved a plane
Reminiscent of 9/11, Abdullah's plan was to hijack an airplane and crash it into a skyscraper, prosecutors speculate. In preparation he had been training for years in the Philippines and already obtained his pilot license. The attack was to be carried out on behalf of.. Al-Shabab
Abdullah's trajectory to become a terrorist started already back in 2012 when he pledged allegiance to the Somali group al-Shabab. At the time, the group had just been accepted into the fold of al-Qaida.
Abdullah's training started around 2016. In the Phillippines, he started flight training in Dec 2016 at the All Asia Aviation Academy and he was researching methods on how to enter the US illegally with allegedly one objective: to hijack an airplane.
Acc. to prosecutors Abdullah was part of an al-Shabab external attack unit and was acting under direct order from a commander also in charge of last year's attack against the DusitD2 hotel in Nairobi's Westlands. Just a few days ago, Al-Shabab issued a video on the Dusit attack.
Al-Shabab is not known for its dedication to target 'the far enemy' referring to the West except in #Somalia and neighboring countries. But perhaps that's changing. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/21/world/africa/al-qaeda-somalia-shabab.html
In January 19, five members attacked the upscale hotel/office complex in Nairobi and one year later, the group targeted the Manda Bay airfield in Kenya killing 3 Americans. Acc. to Stephen J. Townsend, the head of AFRICOM, Al-Shabab is even a threat to the US homeland.
This threat has aggravated since Trump's decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalen which led to the initiation of a global al-Qaida campaign dubbed "Jerusalem Will Never Be Judaized". Abdullah's case could indicate that Al-Shabab now prioritizes targeting US on its own soil.
Now Abdullah stands trial in a New York federal court and today he pleaded not guilty. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/kenyan-national-indicted-conspiring-hijack-aircraft-behalf-al-qaeda-affiliated-terrorist
