An Afghan national living in Texas faces a federal case after allegedly threatening to carry out a suicide car or truck bombing in a video posted to social media sites, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
Mohammad Dawood Alokozay, of Fort Worth, said in a video posted on TikTok, X and Facebook days before Thanksgiving that Americans and “infidels” must perish and that he was going to use an improvised explosive device in his vehicle — made with a yellow cooking oil “favored by the Taliban” — to carry out the slaughter, according to the DOJ.
The Nov. 23 video call displayed the would-be suicide bomber “angrily gesturing and speaking Dari, a language commonly spoken in Afghanistan, while interacting with at least two other males,” authorities said.
Two days later, the Texas Department of Public Safety alerted the FBI to the video, in which Alokozay purportedly described the Islamic fundamentalist rules of Afghanistan as “dear” to him.
The FBI used facial recognition technology to identify Alokozay, and he was arrested the same day.
Special agent Justin Killian said in an affidavit that Alokozay admitted making the statements, and claimed he deleted the TikTok app from his phone after people contacted him saying they had seen the video.
Dallas US Attorney Ryan Raybould filed a single charge against Alokozay, 30, of making threatening communications in interstate commerce.
The suspect faces up to five years in prison if convicted. He was in custody pending an initial court appearance.
“This Afghan national came into America during the Biden administration and as alleged, explicitly stated that he came here in order to kill American citizens,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement.
“The public safety threat created by the Biden administration’s vetting breakdown cannot be overstated – the Department of Justice will continue working with our federal and state partners to protect the American people from the prior administration’s dangerous incompetence.”
Alokozay was initially arrested on a state charge of making a terroristic threat. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin announced the arrest on X Saturday — one day after the Trump administration halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports.
Those moves came after two National Guard members were shot, with one killed, Wednesday in Washington. Federal authorities have identified the suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War.
Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration and was granted it earlier this year under President Donald Trump, according to a group that assists with resettlement of Afghans who helped US forces in their country.
There is no indication that the DC shooting and the Texas case are directly connected.
With Post wires
