Muslim man sentenced in the US on terrorism charges, supporting ISIS
Another Muslim man in the U.S. has been sentenced on terrorism charges, including providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Ahmad Khalil Elshazly, 29, a U.S. citizen living in West Haven, Connecticut, was sentenced on Monday by U.S. District Judge Victor Bolden in the District of Connecticut. Elshazly, who was 4 on 9/11, attempted to travel overseas to join ISIS to fight against U.S. troops. Instead, he was caught, pleaded guilty and sentenced to 92 months in prison and lifetime supervised release.
According to court documents and statements made in court, in September 2018, around the 17-year-anniversaary of 9/11 when Elshazly was 21, he expressed a desire to travel to Syria to fight on behalf of ISIS. In numerous in-person and online conversations, he swore “bay’at” allegiance to ISIS and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to court documents. During the U.S. military’s Operation Inherent Resolve against ISIS, al-Baghdadi reportedly committed suicide as U.S. forces moved in on his location in Syria.
In October 2019, after al-Baghdadi’s death was reported, Elshazly sent a message to the new leader of ISIS, pledging his allegiance “to the Khilafah,” al-Baghdadi’s successor, Abu Ibrahim Al Husseini Al Hashami Al Qurashi. He also created and administered a pro-ISIS Discord server, which he used to post hundreds of pro-ISIS and other propaganda memes and videos, court documents state.
In December 2019, he paid $500 to an individual he believed would help smuggle him out of the U.S. to Turkey. Once in Turkey, he believed he would connect with an ISIS member who would help him cross into Syria to join ISIS. The individual was an undercover agent. Elshazly made it as far as Stonington, Connecticut, where he thought he was going to board a boat to be smuggled out of the country. Instead, he was arrested and detained.
In November 2022, he pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. While detained, he also had numerous disciplinary infractions, the DOJ said. In August 2025, officers searched his cell and “found a handwritten plan for a coordinated uprising at the detention facility, complete with diagrams of the housing unit, instructions for breaching secured areas, and tactics for confronting the Correctional Emergency Response Team,” the DOJ said.
His arrest, prosecution and sentencing were an outworking of an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force operation involving the Stonington Police Department, New Haven Police Department, and Connecticut State Police.
The FBI’s JTTF is national and regional, including Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigations, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the State Department, U.S.Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, among other federal agencies.
Twenty-five years after 9/11, nearly every week, a U.S. Attorney’s Office is announcing a new terrorism-related prosecution or sentencing. Five days ago, the Eastern District of New York announced an ISIS-related prosecution of Georgian national extradited to the U.S. who was wanted on multiple terrorism charges, The Center Square reported. Before that, it was the Western District of Pennsylvania, charging a 21-year-old with planning to commit a major terrorist act on behalf of ISIS. Similar cases are being announced nationwide.
The charges are similar: a Muslim man who was either not alive on Sept. 11 or was born shortly after the Islamic terrorist attacks is arrested, charged and prosecuted for supporting an FTO or attempting to carry out a terrorist attack. In each case, attempts to commit terrorism are thwarted by federal agents operating in a joint task force.
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