A Somali-American man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for plotting to bomb a Christmas-tree lighting ceremony in the western U.S. state of Oregon nearly four years ago.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud was arrested in November 2010, after pressing a keypad button on a cellphone that he believed would trigger a truck bomb parked near a holiday event in Portland. But the bomb was a fake provided by FBI agents posing as al-Qaida recruiters.
Mohamud, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was a student at Oregon State University student when undercover agents befriended him after learning that he had exchanged emails with terrorists and published articles for an online jihadi magazine.
Mohamud's defense team said he will appeal the sentence.
Mohamud apologized in court before the sentencing. He acknowledged "the things I said and did were terrible."