US arrests two Palestinian ISIL suspects as refugee policy comes under scrutiny

Men arrested on terrorism-related charges in California and Texas, including a refugee from Syria who is charged with lying to federal investigators about his travels to the civil war in that country.

SACRAMENTO // Authorities said that two people with ties to ISIL have been arrested on terrorism-related charges in California and Texas, including a refugee from Syria who is charged with lying to federal investigators about his travels to the civil war in that country.

The arrests feed a national debate over whether the United States is doing enough to screen refugees from Syria for terrorists from that nation.

Court documents say the men wanted to aid terrorist organisations affiliated with ISIL. However, one man is accused of assisting a group that allied with the group only after he had returned to the United States. He earlier said he wouldn’t join ISIL himself because it was killing fellow Muslims.

A criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday accuses that man, Aws Mohammed Younis Al Jayab, 23, of Sacramento, of travelling to Syria to fight and lying to investigators about it. US attorney Benjamin Wagner said in a statement that while Mr Al Jayab was potentially dangerous, there is no indication that he planned any attacks in the United States.

Meanwhile, the US Attorney’s Office based in Houston, Texas, said late on Thursday that Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, 24, of Houston, was indicted on Wednesday on three charges that he tried to provide material support to the extremists.

There is no indication from prosecutors that Mr Al Hardan was a threat in the US, but his arrest sparked immediate criticism of the Obama administration’s refugee policies from Texas governor Greg Abbott and Lt governor Dan Patrick.

“This is precisely why I called for a halt to refugees entering the US from countries substantially controlled by terrorists,” Mr Abbott said. “I once again urge the president to halt the resettlement of these refugees in the United States until there is an effective vetting process that will ensure refugees do not compromise the safety of Americans and Texans.”

Both men are Palestinians born in Iraq, authorities said.

The complaint in federal court in Sacramento said Mr Al Jayab came to the US from Syria as a refugee in October 2012. While living in Arizona and Wisconsin, he communicated on social media about his intent to return to Syria to fight for terrorist organisations and discussed his previous experience fighting against the regime in Syria, starting shortly after he turned 16. When he was interviewed by citizenship officials, he lied about his travels and ties, the complaint alleges.

He left the United States in November 2013, but he came to Sacramento in January 2014, the FBI said in a 20-page affidavit.

Social media and other accounts say that as soon as he arrived in the US, he began saying he wanted to return to Syria to “work,” which the FBI says is believed to be a reference “to assisting in and supporting violent jihad.”

Authorities said he eventually fought with various terrorist organisations, including Ansar Al Islam, which in 2014 merged with ISIL after Mr Al Jayab had returned to the US.

He criticised ISIL in several messages for killing Muslims.

“If it weren’t for the state’s bloodletting, I would have been the first one to join it,” he said, according to the FBI, although he later described fighting alongside the group.

The documents did not indicate how the two men are connected.

However, the affidavit says Mr Al Jayab communicated with an unnamed individual living in Texas in April 2013 to see if he could receive training in various weapons.

A few days later, he described, during earlier fighting, emptying seven ammunition magazines from his assault rifle during a battle and executing three Syrian government soldiers.

Ben Galloway of the federal defender’s office is Mr Al Jayab’s attorney. He did not return telephone and emailed messages on Thursday.

The US Attorney’s Office in Sacramento said Mr Al Jayab was arrested on Thursday morning in Sacramento.

Federal officials say three separate arrests in Milwaukee on Thursday grew out of the Sacramento investigation but are not related to national security.

The suspects in Wisconsin are relatives of the man arrested in Sacramento, said Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the US Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.

* Associated Press