Texas man pleads guilty to attempt to join ISIL via Turkey

Austin, Texas - REUTERS

This undated image provided by the Austin Police Department shows Michael Wolfe. Wolfe is one of two Central Texas men who have been separately accused of trying to plot their entry into conflicts in Syria and Somalia to support terrorists, according to federal prosecutors. (AP Photo/Austin Police Department)

A Texas man pleaded guilty on Friday of attempting to provide support and resources to a Middle Eastern foreign terrorist organization as part of a federal undercover operation, U.S. prosecutors said.

Michael Wolfe, 23, admitted that "he planned to travel to the Middle East to provide his services to a foreign terrorist organization, namely, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant al-Sham/Syria (ISIS) and to engage in violent jihad in Syria," federal prosecutors said in a statement.

He faces up to 15 years in prison for his attempted involvement with the group, also known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL. No date has been set for a sentencing hearing, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said.

Wolfe purchased a plane ticket to travel to Europe where he was to meet an FBI undercover employee, who Wolfe thought would help him travel to Turkey and then Syria, where he would join ISIL and join the armed conflict.

A lawyer for Wolfe was not immediately available for comment.

In documents filed on June 27 at the U.S. federal court in Austin, Wolfe said he knowingly tried to provide support to ISIL.

Wolfe and another Texas man, Rahatul Ashikim Kahn, 23, were arrested this month and faced separate federal charges of attempting to aid terrorists.