American Fighting With ISIS Captured in Iraq
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An American fighting for the Islamic State was captured in northern Iraq early Monday morning, according to Kurdish and American officials.
The American, identified by Kurdish officials as a young man from Virginia, was captured near the city of Sinjar, which Kurdish forces retook from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in November. A senior American military official and the Kurdish official, fighting with Kurdish pesh merga forces, confirmed the capture on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.
A Pentagon spokesman, Capt. Jeff Davis, said in a statement: “We’re aware of the reports, aware that the U.S. citizen allegedly fighting for ISIL has been captured by pesh merga forces in northern Iraq. We’re in touch with Iraqi and Kurdish authorizes to determine the veracity of these reports.”
Kurdish officials in Iraq identified the American as Mohammed Jamal Amin, 27, but an image that Kurdish officials appeared to have circulated on social media showed a Virginia driver’s license belonging to a man named Mohamad Jamal Khweis who would be 26 years old.
If his identity is confirmed, the man would be the first American fighting with the Islamic State known to have surrendered in the field, according to Seamus Hughes, an expert on Islamist extremism in the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University.
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