This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A woman from Georgia has been charged with working for an Islamic State-linked group that posted online “kill lists” on which thousands of Americans were named.

Kim Anh Vo, 20, was arrested last week and charged in New York with providing material support to Isis. Authorities say she joined the United Cyber Caliphate, a hacking group that pledges allegiance to the extremist group.

The group posted thousands of names and addresses online and urged followers to murder the people on the lists in lone-wolf attacks, according to a criminal complaint. Targets included members of the US military and employees of the state department.

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Vo, who lives in Hephzibah, Georgia, allegedly edited and translated pro-Isis messages shared online and recruited new members. She also allegedly assisted with hacking projects.

In 2016, the United Cyber Caliphate posted to Twitter the names, addresses and personal information of 3,602 people in the New York City area, prosecutors say.

“List of the most important citizens of #NewYork and #Brooklyn and some other cities,” the post said. “We Want Them #Dead.”

Another list, posted in April 2017, contained the names and information of more than 8,700 people, thousands of whom live in the US, the complaint says. The data was stolen from the website of a US company, agents charge.

The spreadsheet was posted with a “kill list video” that included footage of a man being decapitated.

“We have a message to the people of the US,” the video said, “and most importantly, your President Trump: know that we continue to wage war against you, know that your counter-attacks only makes us stronger. We will release a list with over 8,000 names, addresses and email addresses … Kill them wherever you find them.”

Prosecutors say Vo helped recruit a 14-year-old in Norway. The teenager posted a video threatening a New York non-profit that works to combat extremism with the message: “You messed with the Islamic State SO EXPECT US SOON.”

Vo went by online aliases including Miss.Bones, Kitty Lee, Zozo, and F@ng, according to the complaint. In one online exchange, she wrote about taking on a new name “just so I can bring on a more mass destruction”.

In another message, she allegedly cheered a terror attack in London in 2017 in which the attacker drove a car into a crowd on Westminster Bridge, killing four people, then fatally stabbed a police officer.

“Hey this gives me an idea,” she allegedly wrote, saying Isis supporters should “use this recent success attack” as a model to encourage violence in other countries.

If convicted, Vo faces up to 20 years in prison. Her parents told the Augusta Chronicle they were shocked.

“She’s a good girl,” said her father, Long Vo.