North Carolina Man Charged with Trying to Join Al Qaeda-Linked Group in Syria

A North Carolina man who allegedly told an undercover federal informant that he wanted to fight jihad in Syria and become a “martyr” is facing charges that he tried to join up with an Al Qaeda-linked group in the civil war-torn country.

Basit Javed Sheikh of Cary, North Carolina, was indicted on charges of aiding a foreign terrorist organization (Photo via the North Carolina News & Observer)

The Associated Press reported that Basit Javed Sheikh, 29, a legal permanent U.S. resident originally from Pakistan, was charged with attempting to provide material support for a foreign terrorist group.

According to the federal indictment filed in court last week, the Cary, N.C., resident tried to board a flight to Canada on Nov. 3 before eventually landing in Lebanon when he was arrested at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

According to the indictment, Sheikh was trying to provide personnel to the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, the main jihadi group in Syria, Raleigh's WRAL reported.

Sheikh's father, Javed Sheikh, told The News & Observer in North Carolina on Monday that there “is no truth in that.”

The News & Observer reported Sheikh told an undercover FBI source that he planned on joining the jihad in Syria and that he had arranged a job of working with a brigade in logistics and managing medical supplies, according to the informant’s sworn affidavit.

The indictment comes on the heels of a report that British fighters plan to take their jihad mission to American and British soil, armed with battlefront experience gained fighting alongside rebels combating President Bashar Assad’s rule in Syria.

Sheikh reportedly came to the attention of law enforcement officials through his activities on an extremist Islamic Facebook page. According to the FBI, Sheikh posted updates supporting the jihad and foreign fighters in Syria.

“Yes we will return Home …# Not alone ... #With an army to free our (imprisoned) brother’s (sic) & Sisters,” he allegedly wrote.

The affidavit said he told the informant that he was prepared to be a “martyr” upon joining the rebels in Syria, WRAL reported.

The FBI affidavit revealed that Sheikh had made earlier efforts to join the Syrian rebel ranks. In 2012, he flew to Turkey to join the Free Syria Army but was reportedly disappointed by the group’s alleged focus on money. After that, he booked another trip to Turkey but never boarded the flight.

“He held off because he couldn’t reach his contact in Turkey, and he ‘could not muster the strength to leave his parents,’" the affidavit states, according to the News & Observer.

He told the undercover FBI source that he was planning to join a group called Ahrar al-Sham, an Islamist Syrian opposition group fighting Assad.

If convicted, Sheikh could face a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

On Sunday, TheBlaze posted video filmed by Vice News that showed British citizens fighting in Syria saying they planned to target Britain and the U.S.

“I say to United States that your time will come and we will bleed you to death and, inshallah [Allah willing], will raise the flag in the White House,” a 26-year-old Briton whose face was covered to hide his identity told the Vice News interviewer.

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