Muhamad Mahmoud Al-Farekh, American al-Qaeda member convicted for role in US army base attack

Muhamad Mahmoud Al-Farekh, an American al-Qaeda member involved in a terror attack at a US military base in Afghanistan has been convicted by a federal court in the United States.

According to the Acting Assistant Attorney General Boente, the trial evidence showed that he was involved in a variety of terrorist activity, including a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) attack on a US military installation in Afghanistan in 2009.

In a bid to fight against American forces overseas, Farekh and two fellow students traveled to Pakistan. Before joining al-Qaeda, Farekh was a student at the University of Manitoba in Canada. 

Through the access of the video recordings which encourages violent jihad, jihadist lectures, including lectures by now-deceased al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader Anwar al-Awlaki, Farekh and his co-inspirators had radicalized.

Farekh and his friends traveled to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, an area in the northern part of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan and is home to al Qaeda’s base of operations, where they joined and received training from al Qaeda, federal prosecutors alleged.

During the trial, Ahmedzay testified that Imam as his weapons trainer. Zazi and Ahmedzay pleaded guilty pursuant to cooperation agreements and have yet to be sentenced. Medunjanin was convicted after trial and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Imam has been indicted for his role in the plot. The government proved Farekh’s participation in the building of a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) that was used in an attack against Forward Operating Base Chapman (FOB Chapman) on January 19, 2009, in Khost, Afghanistan.

(With PTI inputs)