By JACK BROOK, Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The FBI has accused a Louisiana resident of participating in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, then lying about his past and fraudulently obtaining a visa to live in the U.S.

According to an FBI criminal complaint unsealed this week, Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi armed himself and gathered a group to cross from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel during the attack that left more than 1,200 people dead.

Hamas fighters also kidnapped more than 250 people, including dozens of American citizens, during the raid. This week, Hamas released the 20 remaining living hostages after the two sides agreed to a tenuous ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.

Al-Muhtadi was an operative of the Gaza-based military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to the complaint prepared by FBI Supervisory Special Agent Alexandria M. Thoman O’Donnell and submitted to a federal judge on Oct. 6. O’Donnell serves on a task force investigating the murder and kidnapping of American citizens during the attack two years ago.

On his U.S. visa application, Al-Muhtadi denied he had ever been involved in terrorist activities, and became a legal permanent resident in 2024, the complaint says.

Related Articles

Iowa superintendent detained by ICE falsely claimed he was a US citizen, indictment says

Indiana University fires student newspaper adviser who refused to block news stories

Alaska storm damage so bad many evacuees won’t go home for at least 18 months, governor says

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow deployment of National Guard in Chicago area

Regional banks’ bad loans spark concerns on Wall Street

The complaint says he could face charges for visa fraud and for conspiring to provide support for a foreign terrorist organization. Al-Muhtadi was arrested Thursday, according to the Justice Department.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the Justice Department remains “dedicated to finding and prosecuting those responsible for that horrific day, including the murder of dozens of American citizens.”

“We will continue to stand by Jewish Americans and Jewish people around the world against anti-Semitism and terrorism in all its forms,” Bondi said.

Inmate records show someone with Al-Muhtadi’s same name and age is being held at St. Martin Parish Correctional Center, near Lafayette. He was scheduled to appear in federal court Friday morning.

No attorney was identified for Al-Muhtadi in court filings. The FBI declined to provide more details to The Associated Press, citing the government shutdown.

“Justice will be served,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said in an X post. He added that Al-Muhtadi might be sent to the newly opened immigration detention wing of the state’s maximum security prison.

Al-Muhtadi’s social media and email accounts revealed a yearslong affiliation with a Hamas-aligned paramilitary group, including carrying out firearms training, according to the FBI.

On the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas forces attacked Israel, the then-military commander of Hamas, Mohammed Deif, called for “the masses” to join in.

Al-Muhtadi told his associates to “get ready” and “bring the rifles,” and that “there is kidnapping, and it’s a game, which will be a good one,” according to phone calls reviewed by the FBI. He also asked an associate to bring ammunition.

The FBI says Al-Muhtadi coordinated an armed group to travel into Israel and that during the attack his phone pinged a cell tower near Kfar Aza, an Israeli village where dozens of residents were killed and approximately 19 kidnapped.

In June 2024, Al-Muhtadi submitted an electronic U.S. visa application in Cairo. In the application, he denied serving in any paramilitary organization or having ever engaged in terrorist activities. His application said he intended to live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and work in “car repairs or food services.” He entered the U.S. in September 2024.

Al-Muhtadi lived in Tulsa through May but by early June had relocated to Lafayette, where he worked for a local restaurant, the FBI says.

An unidentified FBI agent repeatedly met with Al-Muhtadi in Lafayette from July to September this year.

An associate advised Al-Muhtadi not to contact anyone from the paramilitary group because he was under surveillance in the U.S. and to avoid posting on social media in support of Hamas. The FBI says Al-Muhtadi responded that he could post whatever he wanted, including pictures of Hamas leaders, and he would be safe.

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

DES MOINES, Iowa — The former superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen on a federal form and knowingly possessed several firearms illegally, according to a newly returned indictment that raises the prospect of a lengthy prison term.

A federal grand jury issued the two-count indictment Thursday charging former Des Moines schools superintendent Ian Roberts with one count of making a false statement for employment and one count of unlawfully possessing a firearm while being in the country illegally. Together, the charges carry a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Roberts, who is originally from Guyana and worked for two decades in school districts across the U.S., was detained Sept. 26 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a targeted operation that shocked the community.

Authorities said Roberts lacked authorization to work in the U.S. and fled from agents who conducted a traffic stop while he was driving his district-issued Jeep Cherokee. Roberts was later apprehended in a wooded area with help from the Iowa State Patrol. Authorities found a handgun wrapped in a towel inside his car, investigators said, along with $3,000 cash.

This photo provided by WOI Local 5 News in September 2025 shows Des Moines schools Superintendent Ian Roberts. (WOI Local 5 News via AP)

Des Moines Public Schools hired Roberts in 2023 to lead its district of about 30,000 students. Days after being detained, Roberts resigned from his job, which included an annual salary of $286,716.

The indictment alleges that Roberts made a “false attestation” on a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Employment Eligibility Verification form, known as an I-9, claiming he was a U.S. citizen when he knew he was not.

Roberts’ attorney Alfredo Parrish said his client was not surprised by the indictment and would fight the charges at trial.

“Dr. Roberts intends to enter a not guilty plea because he’s innocent of these charges,” he said. “Our immigration system, as most Americans understand, is in shambles.”

The district on Friday refused to release the I-9 form in response to a public records request filed by The Associated Press, saying it was a confidential personnel record under Iowa law and also part of the federal investigation. District officials have said Roberts also submitted a driver’s license and Social Security card as part of the verification process.

Authorities have said Roberts came to the U.S. in the 1990s and his work authorization expired in 2020. An immigration judge issued a final order for his removal last year after a hearing where Roberts failed to appear, and Roberts’ request to reopen the proceedings was rejected earlier this year. Roberts’ attorney has argued his client was led to believe by a former attorney that the appeal had been resolved in his favor.

After his detention by ICE, Roberts was transferred to U.S. Marshals custody Oct. 2 to face a federal firearms charge. Roberts, 54, remains at the Polk County Jail in Des Moines.

In addition to the one in his vehicle when he was arrested, three other firearms were found during a search of Roberts’ home, authorities said. The indictment describes the four weapons, including two pistols, a rifle and a shotgun.

Related Articles

Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon visits Minnesota to mark 200 years of emigration to the US

Iowa revokes license of schools superintendent arrested by ICE, saying he is in US illegally

Sen. Ernst of Iowa is expected to announce next month that she won’t run for reelection in 2026

Minnesota State Fair vs. Iowa’s: Which one is truly best?

The firearms charge carries a punishment of up to 15 years in prison, while the false statement charge carries up to five years.

The Department of Homeland Security has publicized a lengthy criminal history for Roberts, including a 2020 arrest in New York state on a charge of criminal possession of a weapon, details of which have been sealed. He was cited in 2021 for a minor firearms violation in Pennsylvania related to his storage of a hunting rifle in his vehicle.

The fallout from the case has been widespread. The district filed a lawsuit alleging the consulting firm it used during the 2023 superintendent search failed to adequately vet Roberts’ background. The firm has defended its work, which included flagging a discrepancy involving a doctorate degree falsely claimed by Roberts on one resume.

State Auditor Rob Sand announced this week that his office will investigate the district’s finances in response to an outside request. The move came after the AP reported that Roberts had pushed to award district business to a firm that employed him as a consultant, despite the conflict of interest.

School Board Chair Jackie Norris ended her campaign for U.S. Senate on Thursday, citing the need to lead the district through the crisis. The district is asking voters to approve a $265 million bond referendum next month that would raise property taxes in order to support program and building improvements.

Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.

Tension between Indiana University and its student newspaper flared this week with the elimination of the outlet’s print editions and the firing of a faculty adviser, who refused an order to keep news stories out of a homecoming edition.

Administrators may have been hoping to minimize distractions this homecoming weekend as the school prepares to celebrate a Hoosiers football team with its highest-ever national ranking. Instead, the controversy has entangled the school in questions about censorship and student journalists’ First Amendment rights.

Advocates for student media, Indiana Daily Student alumni and high-profile supporters including billionaire Mark Cuban have blasted the school for stepping on the outlet’s independence.

The Daily Student is routinely honored among the best collegiate publications in the country. It receives about $250,000 annually in subsidies from the university’s Media School to help make up for dwindling ad revenue.

On Tuesday, the university fired the paper’s adviser, Jim Rodenbush, after he refused an order to force student editors to ensure no news stories ran in the print edition tied to the homecoming celebrations.

“I had to make the decision that was going to allow me to live with myself,” Rodenbush said. “I don’t have any regrets whatsoever. In the current environment we’re in, somebody has to stand up.”

Related Articles

Iowa superintendent detained by ICE falsely claimed he was a US citizen, indictment says

Alaska storm damage so bad many evacuees won’t go home for at least 18 months, governor says

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow deployment of National Guard in Chicago area

Regional banks’ bad loans spark concerns on Wall Street

FEMA staff sound the alarm on disaster preparedness at rally in front of agency headquarters

IU says student journalists still call the shots

A university spokesperson referred an AP reporter to a statement issued Tuesday, which said the campus wants to shift resources from print media to digital platforms both for students’ educational experience and to address the paper’s financial problems.

Chancellor David Reingold issued a separate statement Wednesday saying the school is “firmly committed to the free expression and editorial independence of student media. The university has not and will not interfere with their editorial judgment.”

It was late last year when university officials announced they were scaling back the cash-strapped newspaper’s print edition from a weekly to seven special editions per semester, tied to campus events.

The paper published three print editions this fall, inserting special event sections, Rodenbush said. Last month, Media School officials started asking why the special editions still contained news, he said.

Rodenbush said IU Media School Dean David Tolchinsky told him earlier this month that the expectation was print editions would contain no news. Tolchinsky argued Rodenbush was essentially the paper’s publisher and could decide what to run, Rodenbush said. He told the dean that publishing decisions were the students’ alone, he said.

Tolchinsky fired him Tuesday, two days before the homecoming print edition was set to be published, and announced the end of all Indiana Daily Student print publications.

“Your lack of leadership and ability to work in alignment with the University’s direction for the Student Media Plan is unacceptable,” Tolchinsky wrote in Rodenbush’s termination letter.

The newspaper was allowed to continue publishing stories on its website.

Student journalists see a ‘scare tactic’

Andrew Miller, the Indiana Daily Student’s co-editor-in-chief, said in a statement that Rodenbush “did the right thing by refusing to censor our print edition” and called the termination a “deliberate scare tactic toward journalists and faculty.”

“IU has no legal right to dictate what we can and cannot print in our paper,” Miller said.

Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel at the Student Press Law Center, said First Amendment case law going back 60 years shows student editors at public universities determine content. Advisors like Rodenbush can’t interfere, Hiestand said.

“It’s open and shut, and it’s just so bizarre that this is coming out of Indiana University,” Hiestand said. “If this was coming out of a community college that doesn’t know any better, that would be one thing. But this is coming out of a place that absolutely should know better.”

Rodenbush said that he wasn’t aware of any single story the newspaper has published that may have provoked administrators. But he speculated the moves may be part of a “general progression” of administrators trying to protect the university from any negative publicity.

Blocked from publishing a print edition, the paper this week posted a number of sharp-edged stories online, including coverage of the opening of a new film critical of arrests of pro-Palestinian demonstrators last year, a tally of campus sexual assaults and an FBI raid on the home of a former professor suspected of stealing federal funds.

The paper also has covered allegations that IU President Pamela Whitten plagiarized parts of her dissertation, with the most recent story running in September.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Damage to remote Alaska villages hammered by flooding last weekend is so extreme that many of the more than 2,000 people displaced won’t be able to return to their homes for at least 18 months, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a request to the White House for a major disaster declaration.

In one of the hardest hit villages, Kipnuk, an initial assessment showed that 121 or homes — or 90% of the total — have been destroyed, Dunleavy wrote. In Kwigillingok, where three dozen homes floated away, slightly more than one-third of the residences are uninhabitable.

In this photo provided by the Alaska National Guard, Alaska Air National Guard Staff Sgt. Angel Reyes distributes hearing protection to passengers while evacuating Alaskans displaced in the aftermath of Typhoon Halong out of Bethel, Alaska, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (Alaska National Guard via AP)

The remnants of Typhoon Halong struck the area with the ferocity of a Category 2 hurricane, Dunleavy said, sending a surge of high surf into the low-lying region. One person was killed, two remain missing, and rescue crews plucked dozens of people from their homes as they floated away.

Officials have been scrambling to airlift people from the inundated Alaska Native villages. Hundreds of evacuees have been flown to Anchorage on military transport flights, with additional flights planned Friday and Saturday. Dunleavy said he expects more than 1,500 people to be relocated to major cities in the state.

Related Articles

Iowa superintendent detained by ICE falsely claimed he was a US citizen, indictment says

Indiana University fires student newspaper adviser who refused to block news stories

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow deployment of National Guard in Chicago area

Regional banks’ bad loans spark concerns on Wall Street

FEMA staff sound the alarm on disaster preparedness at rally in front of agency headquarters

In this photo provided by Jacqui Lang, volunteers help collect dogs in Kipnuk, Alaska, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, to evacuate to an animal shelter in Bethel, Alaska, as their owners had evacuated. (Jacqui Lang via AP)