ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The United States Department of Justice on Friday announced that a former USarmy soldier was sentenced to 14 years in prison for devising a plan aimed at helping Islamic State (ISIS) militants carry out attacks against American troops in the Middle East.

Cole Bridges, 24, joined the army in September 2019 and was stationed in the state of Georgia, but had been consuming ISIS propaganda and expressing his support for the jihadist group online before that date, according to court documents.

“Approximately one year after joining the Army, BRIDGES began communicating with a Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) online covert employee (the “OCE”), who was posing as an ISIS supporter in contact with ISIS fighters in the Middle East,” read the Justice Department statement.

In the communications, Bridges provided training and guidance to individuals he was led to believe were ISIS fighters planning attacks on American interests in the Middle East as well as New York, and provided them with US army manuals on combat tactics. He also supplied the undercover FBI agent with information on how to attack, ambush, and maximize the fatality of attacks.

The sentencing comes over a year after Bridges pled guilty to terrorism charges. In addition to the 14 years in prison, the former soldier was also sentenced to 10 years of supervised release.

“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.  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. This is a betrayal of the worst order,” said Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Around 2,500 American troops are stationed in Iraq, and an additional 900 in Syria, as part of an international coalition group trying to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS.