Former U.S. Army soldier Cole Bridges was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Friday for trying to help the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) conduct a deadly ambush on American military forces.
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Bridges, 24, provided tactical guidance and support to individuals he believed were ISIS operatives, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The former soldier planned to assist the terrorist group in facilitating attacks on soldiers deployed in the Middle East.
Bridges, a former cavalry scout assigned to the Third Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia, pled guilty to the charges in June 2023. He had been accused of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to murder U.S. military personnel. During the proceedings, he expressed remorse for his actions.
Cole Bridges, 24, of Stow, Ohio, was handed down the sentence after a nearly five-hour Manhattan federal court proceeding in which he surprisingly requested he be given a maximum 40-year sentence. Bridges pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in June 2023.
“Honestly, I do believe that I deserve the maximum sentence,” Bridges told Judge Lewis J. Liman. “I know what I did was wrong,” he said, adding he would carry “regret for as long as I live.”
Liman cited numerous facts that he said demonstrated Bridges was “not a hardened criminal” and said he had no actual communications with the Islamic State organization.
“Cole Bridges used his U.S. Army training to pursue a horrifying goal: the brutal murder of his fellow service members in a carefully plotted ambush,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in a statement. “Bridges sought to attack the very soldiers he was entrusted to protect.
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Bridges became radicalized after he started consuming jihadist propaganda and expressing support for ISIS on social media in 2019, shortly after he enlisted in the Army, according to the attorney’s office.
In October 2020, about one year into his service, he began communicating with an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS supporter. He shared his frustrations with the U.S. military and expressed a desire to aid ISIS in its fight against American forces in the Middle East.
In late 2020, Bridges provided detailed instructions to the undercover agent on how to strike U.S. military forces in the region. He provided information on military maneuvers to help the terrorist group maximize casualties.
“Among other things, Bridges diagrammed specific military maneuvers intended to help ISIS fighters maximize the lethality of future attacks on U.S. troops,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office explained in a press release. “Bridges also provided advice about the best way to fortify an ISIS encampment to ambush U.S. Special Forces, including by wiring certain buildings with explosives to kill the U.S. troops.”
In or about December 2020, BRIDGES began to supply the OCE with instructions for the purported ISIS fighters on how to attack U.S. forces in the Middle East. Among other things, BRIDGES diagrammed specific military maneuvers intended to help ISIS fighters maximize the lethality of future attacks on U.S. troops. BRIDGES also provided advice about the best way to fortify an ISIS encampment to ambush U.S. Special Forces, including by wiring certain buildings with explosives to kill the U.S. troops. Then, in January 2021, BRIDGES provided the OCE with a video of himself in his U.S. Army body armor standing in front of a flag often used by ISIS fighters and making a gesture symbolic of support for ISIS. Approximately one week later, BRIDGES sent a second video in which BRIDGES, using a voice manipulator, narrated a propaganda speech in support of the anticipated ambush by ISIS on U.S. troops.
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The former service member also sent two jihadist propaganda videos in early 2021. In one of the videos, he appeared in his body armor standing in front of an ISIS flag. In another, he used a voice manipulator to give a speech encouraging attacks on U.S. soldiers.
In addition to his 14-year prison sentence, Bridges will also undergo ten years of supervised release after his sentence is concluded.