US Air Force veteran guilty of IS entry attempt

  • 10/03/2016
Outside of a US Federal court during the arraignment of Tairod Pugh, a former US Air Force mechanic accused of attempting to join ISIS (Getty)
Outside of a US Federal court during the arraignment of Tairod Pugh, a former US Air Force mechanic accused of attempting to join ISIS (Getty)

A US Air Force veteran has been found guilty of attempting to join Islamic State.

Tairod Pugh, 48, was convicted after a week-long trial in Brooklyn federal court, local media report.

The case is the first in more than 75 Islamic State-related prosecutions brought since 2014 by the US Department of Justice to reach a jury verdict.

Prosecutors said Pugh immersed himself in violent Islamic State propaganda for months before buying a one-way flight from his home in Egypt to Turkey, where he hoped to cross the Syrian border into territory controlled by the extremist group.

He was detained by Turkish authorities at an Istanbul airport and eventually flown to the United States to face terrorism charges.

Reuters