US soldier sentenced to 14 years in prison for supporting ISIS in an attack on American troops

Shafaq News/ An American court sentenced soldier Cole Bridges to 14 years in prison after he admitted to helping the terrorist organization ISIS plan an ambush against American military personnel in a Middle Eastern country.

A statement from the U.S. Department of Justice said: “Cole Gonzales, 24, of Stow, Ohio, was sentenced to 168 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization to murder U.S. military personnel based on its efforts to support the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in attacking and killing U.S. soldiers in the Middle East.”

In his ruling, Judge Lewis Liman said 14 years in prison “would be enough,” noting that Bridges had requested a 40-year sentence for himself. However, he was not in direct communication with the terrorists, but with an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS supporter.

The statement said that Bridges “provided the OCE with instructions to the alleged ISIS militants on how to attack U.S. forces in the Middle East.” Among other things, Bridges recorded specific military maneuvers designed to help ISIS militants reduce lethality to maximize future attacks on US troops. Bridges also gave advice on how best to fortify an ISIS camp to attack U.S. special forces, including by wiring certain buildings with explosives to kill U.S. troops.”

Bridges pleaded guilty to terrorism charges against him on June 14, 2023 and enlisted in the U.S. Army in September 2019. He once expressed frustration with his military service.

In October 2020, nearly a year after joining the Army, Bridges began communicating online with an FBI “undercover operative” who claimed to be an ISIS supporter who had contact with ISIS fighters in the Middle East.

The American soldier also provided the employee with parts of a US Army training manual and instructions on military combat tactics, believing that ISIS would use these materials to plan a future attack.