A Kenyan national has been sentenced to life in prison by a US federal court for plotting a 9/11-style terrorist attack that targeted Atlanta’s tallest building, authorities said on Monday.
Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 34, received two consecutive life sentences along with lifetime supervised release after being convicted of planning to hijack a commercial aircraft and crash it into the 55-story Bank of America Plaza in Atlanta. Prosecutors said the plot was carried out on behalf of Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, commonly known as al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked militant group based in Somalia.
In 2024, a jury in Manhattan found Abdullah guilty on six terrorism-related charges, including conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiring to murder US nationals abroad, conspiring to commit aircraft piracy, conspiring to destroy aircraft, and plotting acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries.
According to US prosecutors, Abdullah joined al-Shabaab in 2015 and received extensive training in explosives, covert operations, and evading detection. As part of the group’s international attack strategy, he agreed to train as a commercial pilot with the intention of hijacking a passenger plane and using it as a weapon inside the United States.
In 2017, Abdullah moved to the Philippines to attend flight school, where investigators said he conducted detailed online research on airline security, air marshals, and cockpit doors, including searches related to Boeing 737 aircraft. In January 2019, he searched for information on Delta Air Lines flights and Atlanta’s tallest buildings, focusing specifically on the Bank of America Plaza.
Abdullah was arrested later in 2019 on local charges in the Philippines after nearly completing the requirements for a commercial pilot’s license, lacking only one final step. He was transferred to US custody the following year.
US Attorney Jay Clayton described Abdullah as a “highly trained al-Shabaab operative” who was fully prepared to die in the planned attack. During his trial, Abdullah represented himself, declined to deliver an opening statement, and largely refrained from questioning witnesses.
Al-Shabaab was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States in 2008. The group has waged a violent insurgency in Somalia for more than 16 years and has repeatedly sought to carry out attacks beyond the Horn of Africa.
