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US man pleads guilty to charges of aiding Al-Shabaab

September 8, 2017 at 9:42 pm

A Maryland man today pleaded guilty to conspiring to support the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, admitting that he travelled to Somalia to receive military training from the group.

Maalik Alim Jones, 32, entered his plea to three criminal counts before US District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan. Jones admitted that he carried an AK-47 automatic assault rifle for Al-Shabaab, which is allied with Al-Qaeda.

“I knew that my actions were a violation of the laws of the United States,” he said.

As part of his plea, Jones agreed to give up the right to appeal any sentence less than 50 years. He faces up to life in prison.

Al-Shabaab, which seeks to overthrow Somalia’s Western-backed government and impose a strict version of Islamic law has carried out violent attacks in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Read: Why did the US target Somali civilians hiding under banana trees?

Jones was charged in January 2016. Prosecutors said at the time that Jones, who was born and lived in Maryland, travelled in 2011 to Kenya and then to Somalia, where he was brought to an Al-Shabaab training camp.

Authorities said Jones trained with the group for three months, learning how to handle weapons, including an AK-47 and rocket-propelled grenades.

He then became a member of a specialised fighting force within Al-Shabaab known as Jaysh Ayman that carried out attacks and raids across the border in Kenya and participated in a battle against Kenyan soldiers in the Somali town of Afmadow, prosecutors said.

Jones was taken into custody by Somali authorities on 7 December while he was attempting to procure a boat to depart for Yemen, according to prosecutors.