Kenyan Al-Shabaab member sentenced to life in US for September 11-style plot

Kenyan national Cholo Abdi Abdullah will appear in a New York City federal court Wednesday on terror-related charges. [AFP]

A Kenyan member of the Al Shabaab militant group who received pilot training in the Philippines was sentenced to life in prison on Monday for conspiring to mount a 9/11-style attack in the US. 

Cholo Abdi Abdullah was convicted last year of conspiring to murder US nationals, conspiring to commit aircraft piracy and other offenses. 

"Cholo Abdi Abdullah was a highly trained Al Shabaab operative who was dedicated to recreating the horrific September 11 terrorist attacks on behalf of a vicious terrorist organization," US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. 

"Abdullah pursued his commercial pilot license at a flight school in the Philippines while conducting extensive attack planning on how to hijack a commercial plane and crash it into a building in America," Clayton said. 

Abdullah was arrested in the Philippines in July 2019 and extradited to the US. 

According to the indictment, Abdullah attended flight school in the Philippines between 2017 and 2019 and eventually obtained his pilot's license. 

While undergoing flight training, he allegedly conducted research into methods to hijack a commercial airliner and sought information on how to obtain a US visa. 

The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab was designated a "terrorist" movement by the United States in 2008. 

Abdullah was first arrested in Kenya in the early 2010s, when police officers raided Masjid Musa in Mombasa following intelligence reports that it was a hotbed of radicalisation. 

Inside the building were children and young adults, including the late controversial preacher Aboud Rogo, known for his involvement in radicalisation before he was killed on 27 August, 2012. 

All the adults were hauled into waiting police vehicles and charged, while the minors were let go. Among those arrested was Abdulahi, also known in the streets as Majaz. 

Abdullahi was born in 1990. By the time of the raid, he was 15. After his release, the man from Isiolo took a bus to El-Wak, then illegally crossed into Somalia using a motorbike. 

The former Isiolo Boys High School student's story is tied to yet another man from Isiolo, the infamous Ali Salim Gichunge. The two were part of an 18-member team that had been trained from Jilib Somalia, an Al Shabaab Somalia, and let loose to rain terror in Kenya. 

It is said that the group was tasked to carry out the improvised explosive device  attacks in Ras Kamboni in a bid to block the government from building a wall at the border. They were also tasked with abducting tourists along the Coast. 

Documents from the US court proceedings indicated that he first studied media. Al Shaaab leadership singled him out for aviation training alongside Rashid Mwalimu, a Kenyan militant who remains at large and is on the wanted list of authorities.