DOJ Arrests Refugee After Allegedly Planning ISIS Attack on Pittsburgh Christian Church

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday afternoon the arrest of a 21-year-old Syrian refugee who was allegedly assisting the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) with a terrorist attack targeting a Pittsburgh Christian Church.

According to authorities, Mustafa Mousab Alowemer is a current resident of Pittsburgh but arrived in the United States from war-torn Syria in August 2016. A press release sent out today by the DOJ alleges that Alowemer used various social media and technological communications to coordinate an ISIS-style attack after pledging his support to the Islamic extremist organization.

Apparently, the suspect believed he was speaking with a member of ISIS when he “distributed propaganda materials, offered to provide potential targets in the Pittsburgh area, requested a weapon with a silencer, and recorded a video of himself pledging an oath of allegiance to the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.”

An “FBI Pittsburgh JTTF investigation…revealed that Alowemer plotted to bomb a church located on the North Side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (the Church), using a weapon of mass destruction” the DOJ said.

“According to Alowemer, his motivation to detonate a device at the Church was to support the cause of ISIS and to inspire other ISIS supporters in the United States to join together and commit similar acts in the name of ISIS. Alowemer also targeted the Church in order to ‘take revenge for our [ISIS] brothers in Nigeria,” the press release continued. (Read more from “DOJ Arrests Refugee After Allegedly Planning ISIS Attack on Pittsburgh Christian Church” HERE)

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