A 24-year-old U.S. Army soldier was sentenced to 14 years in prison for trying to help the Islamic State group attack American troops.
Pfc. Cole Bridges, also known as Cole Gonzales, of Ohio, attempted to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and attempted to murder U.S. soldiers, federal prosecutors announced this week . Bridges pleaded guilty to the two charges in June 2023.
On Friday, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York issued Bridges’ sentence, which also includes 10 years of supervised release following his prison term, prosecutors said. Prosecutors had sought 40 years imprisonment for Bridges, court records show.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called Bridges’ actions “a betrayal of the worst order.”
“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,” Williams said in a statement. “Bridges sought to attack the very soldiers he was entrusted to protect and, making this abhorrent conduct even more troubling, was eager to help people he believed were members of a deadly foreign terrorist organization plan this attack.”