US woman accused of trying to join, martyr self for IS group

In this courtroom sketch, defendants Noelle Velentzas, center left and Asia Siddiqui, center right, appear in federal court with their attorneys, Thursday, April 2, 2015, in New York. The two women were arrested Thursday on charges they plotted to wage violent jihad by building a homemade bomb and using it for a Boston Marathon-type terror attack. AP

PHILADELPHIA— A Philadelphia woman was arrested Friday on charges she tried to join and martyr herself for the Islamic State group, a day after two women in New York were charged with plotting to wage jihad by building a bomb and using it for a Boston Marathon-type attack.

Keonna Thomas, 30, was preparing to travel overseas to fight with the terror group, authorities said. Instead, she was arrested at her home.

Authorities said that she communicated with an Islamic State group fighter in Syria who asked if she wanted to be part of a martyrdom operation. She told the fighter that the opportunity “would be amazing,” according to the documents.

It’s unclear if she has a lawyer who could comment on the charges. She is due to make an initial appearance in federal court Friday afternoon.

The two women arrested in New York are accused of plotting to wage violent jihad by building a homemade bomb and using it for an attack like the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. The women were ordered held without bail after a brief court appearance Thursday. The lawyer for one of them said his client will plead not guilty.

Thomas is charged with providing material aid to terrorists, one of the same charges filed in 2010 against another Pennsylvania woman, Colleen LaRose, known as Jihad Jane, and two co-defendants in a terror plot that prosecutors say also involved online messages and recruitment for overseas terror suspects.

Thomas’ posts in support of the Islamic State started in August 2013, when she reposted a Twitter photograph of a boy holding weapons, authorities charged. She called herself Fatayat Al Khilafah and YoungLioness and tweeted posts such as “When you’re a mujahid, your death becomes a wedding,” according to the FBI affidavit filed in the case. A mujahid is one who engages in jihad.

She soon began trying to raise money for the cause online and told a Somalia-based jihadi fighter from Minnesota that she soon hoped to have enough money to travel, authorities said.

She applied for a passport in February and bought a ticket to travel to Barcelona on March 29, the affidavit said. Authorities would not immediately say why she had not made the trip.

In the Jihadi Jane case, LaRose got a 10-year term in January for agreeing to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who drew a cartoon that had offended Muslims, while another American woman, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, got eight years. An immigrant teen from Pakistan got five years.