Adel Daod, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen from the Chicago suburb of Hillside, was arrested by undercover FBI agents after attempting to detonate what he believed to be a car bomb outside of a downtown Chicago bar on Friday. Daod was provided with the device by agents, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago says that it was fake and the public was never at risk.
Daod got the attention of the FBI after he began posting material online about violent jihad and the murder of Americans. Back in May, agents posing as terrorists reached out to him, and he showed interest in carrying out terrorist attacks in the U.S. and abroad.
On Friday, an undercover agent claiming to be a terrorist from New York met Daod and showed him a vehicle that was supposedly rigged with explosives. Daod then parked the vehicle in front of an unnamed bar and attempted to trigger the explosion with a device as the agent watched. He was arrested immediately.
According to prosecutors, Daod was given several opportunities to change his mind or abort the staged attack. He was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to damage and destroy a building with an explosive.
