Minnesota Terror Suspect Takes The Stand

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man on trial for plotting to go to Syria to join the Islamic State group is testifying in his own defense.

Twenty-one-year-old Guled Ali Omar took the stand Thursday after prosecutors rested their case against Omar and two other men. Each faces multiple counts, including conspiracy to commit murder outside the United States.

Prosecutors have said the men were part of a larger group of friends in Minnesota's Somali community who recruited and inspired each other to go to Syria.

Omar testified that he thought about leaving the country in early 2015 because he feared arrest, but believed a plan to get fake passports was a bad idea. Omar also cried when talking about his brother, who left Minnesota in 2007 to join al-Shabab in Somalia.