Kenyan planned 9/11-style attack in U.S. after training as pilot, report

Federal prosecutors have charged a Kenyan man with plotting a Sept. 11-style attack on a building in an U.S. city, according to news report Wednesday.

The charges were included in newly unsealed federal indictment in Manhattan, on which The New York Times reported. 

The man, Cholo Abdi Abdullah, was described in the indictment as an operative for the Shabab –  the Somali terrorist group considered one of Al Qaeda’s largest and most active global affiliate.

Under the direction of a senior Shabab commander who planned a deadly 2019 attack on a hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, Abdullah took such steps as trying to get pilot training and test flaws in airport security to prepare for hijacking a civil aircraft for a terrorist attack on behalf of the terror group, according to the indictment.

Abdullah began the process of enrolling in a flight school in the Philippines in 2016. He received training and completed the tests to earn his pilot’s license, The Times also reports.