U.S. Court Sentences 20-Year-Old to Prison for Plot to Join Daesh Khorasan in Afghanistan

A U.S. federal court in Colorado sentenced 20-year-old Hamza Muskur to three years in prison and lifetime supervised release for attempting to provide material support to Daesh Khorasan.

Muskur, a U.S. citizen from Colorado whose family immigrated from Afghanistan, was arrested in 2023 at Denver International Airport while attempting to board a one-way flight to the United Arab Emirates en route to Afghanistan. He had been communicating with undercover FBI agents posing as Daesh members, expressing intentions to join the group in Afghanistan, fight for it, find a wife or conduct a martyrdom operation, according to Amu TV and Hasht-e Subh.

Federal investigators had monitored Muskur since 2022 after a tip received via Snapchat. He previously considered suicide but shifted his focus to joining Daesh following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Amu TV reported.

During court proceedings, Muskur confessed to the charges, expressed remorse citing his troubled past and autism diagnosis, and thanked authorities for intervening. His defense argued that his plans lacked real capability. He spent 441 days in solitary confinement prior to sentencing, according to Amu TV.

Hasht-e Subh described Muskur as an Afghan and noted reports of increasing youth recruitment to Daesh globally, including from Central Asia, alongside warnings from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation about rising terrorist activity in Afghanistan.