US man sentenced for attempting to join IS

A 24-year-old US man was sentenced to 82 months in prison for attempting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

According to an official Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) statement, Michael Todd Wolfe aka Faruq, of Austin, Texas, was sentenced on Friday by US District Court Judge Sam Sparks to serve 82 months in federal prison for attempting to provide material support to the designated foreign terrorist organisation.

In June 2014, Wolfe pleaded guilty to the charge, admitting that from August 2013 to June 17, 2014, he planned to travel to the Middle East to provide material support to the IS.

Wolfe previously acknowledged that he applied for and acquired a US passport, participated in physical fitness training, practiced military manoeuvre and made efforts to conceal his communications about his plans to travel overseas to engage in the jihad.

Wolfe also purchased airline tickets so that he could travel to Europe to meet an FBI undercover employee, whom the defendant then believed would facilitate travel to Syria.

He was arrested on June 17, 2014 as he attempted to board a flight to Toronto, Canada from Houston.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said that over 22,000 fighters from around the world, including nearly 4,000 from western countries and 100 from the US, had fled to Syria to join the IS.