The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Friday that it foiled a New Year's Eve attack plan inspired by the Islamic State group. The FBI said it foiled a New Year's Eve attack plot targeting a grocery store and fast-food restaurant in North Carolina and arrested a 18-year-old man. The young man is accused of preparing an attack inspired by a foreign terrorist organization.

The FBI said that the accused Christian Sturdivant was arrested on Wednesday. He is accused of helping a foreign terrorist organization. The accused was produced in the court, where he has been kept in custody. The next hearing of this case has been fixed for January 7.

Investigators said the suspect had told an undercover FBI employee, who was posing as his trusted associate, about his plan to attack people with a knife and a hammer. Russ Ferguson, the U.S. attorney for western North Carolina, said that the FBI had kept Sturdivant under constant surveillance for several days, including Christmas, because of Sturdivant's fear of committing violence before New Year's Eve.

Ferguson said that if he had left the house with weapons, agents would have already been prepared to arrest him. He said there was no danger to the public. Sturdivant was arrested on Wednesday and remains in custody following a federal court appearance on Friday.

The alleged attack would have come a year after the killing of 14 people in New Orleans, which was carried out by a US citizen and former soldier who had declared support for IS on social media.

The FBI has foiled several alleged attacks through sting operations in which agents impersonated terrorist supporters to provide information or equipment. Critics say this strategy is tantamount to trapping mentally weak people who do not have the capacity to act alone. FBI Special Agent James Barnacle told reporters that during a search of Sturdivant's home and phone, investigators found a manifesto detailing plans for the attack.

Barnacle said he was ready to sacrifice himself. According to an FBI affidavit, a handwritten note found in the trash can at Sturdivant's home detailed plans for attacks on a Burger King restaurant and an unnamed grocery store and the number of intended victims.

It was also written in the note that he would attack the arriving police officers and wanted to die at the hands of the police. Ferguson admitted that Sturdivant worked at Burger King. It was not clear whether this was the same restaurant mentioned in the note. Ferguson declined to identify the businesses, citing the ongoing investigation.

If convicted, Sturdivant could face up to 20 years in prison, according to court documents. Ferguson said Sturdivant's encounter with two undercover police officers while allegedly planning the attack should be reassuring to the public.

The investigation began last month when authorities linked Sturdivant to a social media account that posted material supporting IS, including images promoting violence, the affidavit said. The account's display name mentioned the extremist group's former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Some experts argue that IS is so powerful as a brand today that it inspires extremist groups and individuals to carry out attacks in which IS itself may have had no real role.

The affidavit said Sturdivant came under FBI surveillance in January 2022, when he was a minor, after authorities learned he was in contact with a suspected IS member in Europe, and he received instructions to wear black, knock on people's doors and carry out attacks with a hammer.

According to the affidavit, at that time, Sturdivant walked toward a neighbor's house with a hammer and a knife, but his grandfather stopped him. Last month, the Los Angeles-based FBI foiled another New Year's Eve plot and arrested members of an extremist anti-capitalist and anti-government group. Federal officials said the group had planned to detonate bombs at several locations in Southern California.

Other IS-inspired attacks in the past decade include a husband-and-wife shooting that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in 2015, and a gunman killing 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016.