Army soldier sentenced to 14 years for ISIS plot to kill US forces, after requesting he serve 40 years

A U.S. Army soldier has been sentenced to 14 years successful situation having pleaded blameworthy to attempting to assistance the Islamic State panic radical connected however to ambush his chap soldiers successful the Middle East during conversations successful which helium believed helium was speaking with a terrorist.

Cole Bridges, 24, of Stow, Ohio, was handed down the condemnation aft a astir five-hour Manhattan national tribunal proceeding successful which helium amazingly requested helium beryllium fixed a maximum 40-year sentence. Bridges pleaded guilty to coercion charges successful June 2023. 

"Honestly, I bash judge that I merit the maximum sentence," Bridges told Judge Lewis J. Liman. "I cognize what I did was wrong," helium said, adding helium would transportation "regret for arsenic agelong arsenic I live."

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Cole Bridges, 22, admitted to trying to assistance ISIS ambush his chap U.S. soldiers successful the Middle East, national prosecutors said. (U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command)

Liman cited galore facts that helium said demonstrated Bridges was "not a hardened criminal" and said helium had nary existent communications with the Islamic State organization.

Bridges, besides known arsenic Cole Gonzales, was assigned to the Third Infantry Division successful Fort Stewart, Georgia, arsenic a cavalry scout astatine the clip of the crime, the Justice Department said. He joined the Army successful September 2019.

According to tribunal documents, astir a twelvemonth earlier helium joined the Army, Bridges began researching and consuming online propaganda promoting jihadists and their convulsive ideology, and began to explicit his enactment for ISIS and jihad connected societal media.

About a twelvemonth into his service, Bridges began communicating with an FBI online covert worker (OCE), who was posing arsenic an ISIS protagonist successful interaction with ISIS fighters successful the Middle East. During these communications, Bridges expressed his vexation with the U.S. subject and his tendency to assistance ISIS, per the tribunal documents. 

Bridges provided grooming and guidance to purported ISIS fighters who were readying attacks, including proposal astir imaginable targets successful New York City. He besides provided the OCE with portions of a U.S. Army grooming manual and guidance astir subject combat tactics, with the knowing that the materials would beryllium utilized by ISIS successful aboriginal onslaught planning.

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A masked Islamic State worker poses holding the ISIS emblem successful 2015.  (History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Bridges besides began supplying the OCE with instructions for the purported ISIS fighters connected however to onslaught U.S. forces successful the Middle East, including diagramming subject maneuvers intended to assistance ISIS fighters maximize the lethality of aboriginal attacks connected U.S. troops. 

He besides gave proposal astir the champion mode to fortify an ISIS encampment to ambush U.S. Special Forces, including by wiring definite buildings with explosives to termination the U.S. troops. 

In January 2021, Bridges provided the OCE with a video of himself successful his U.S. Army assemblage armor lasting successful beforehand of a emblem often utilized by ISIS fighters and making a motion symbolic of enactment for ISIS. 

Around a week later, Bridges sent a 2nd propaganda video helium narrated utilizing a dependable manipulator successful enactment of the anticipated ambush by ISIS connected U.S. troops.

Judge Liman said the 14-year condemnation would deter different members of the equipped forces who mightiness privation to onslaught the military. He said Bridges had "shown signs of remorse," including expressing alleviation aft his apprehension that helium had been dealing with the FBI alternatively than terrorists.

Bridges provided grooming and guidance to purported ISIS fighters who were readying attacks, including proposal astir imaginable targets successful New York City. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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Bridges, the justice added, besides had not sought immoderate materials from different soldiers that mightiness beryllium utile to the Islamic State organization. He said the "most chilling evidence" was Bridges’ willingness to supply the undercover cause with proposal connected however the violent radical could minimize casualties successful an attack.

His attorney, Sabrina Shroff, asked Friday that helium beryllium sentenced to the astir 4 years helium has already served down bars and argued for leniency due to the fact that Bridges was lured into the crippled by undercover U.S. instrumentality enforcement agents who posed arsenic supporters of the Islamic State group. 

She said Bridges was a susceptible people who was seeking a consciousness of assemblage aft becoming isolated from his household and suffering from depression.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.