FBI Asks Americans To Help Identify English-Speaking Islamic State Militant
The FBI is asking Americans to help identify an Islamic State militant who investigators believe has a North American accent.
The Islamic State militant speaks in a recent video addressed to western audiences. The man speaking in the video is masked and claims to have Islamic State prisoners behind him in the footage.
"We're hoping that someone might recognize this individual and provide us with key pieces of information," Michael Steinbach, assistant director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, said in a statement. "No piece of information is too small."
The FBI also encouraged Americans to help "in identifying U.S. persons going to fight overseas with terrorist groups or who are returning home from fighting overseas."
The latest video is the most recent in a string of short films released by the Islamic State that often threaten the U.S. or its allies, many of whom are currently assisting in the American-led airstrikes against Islamic State forces in Syria and Iraq.
On Tuesday, a 19-year-old Chicago suburb resident living with his parents was arrested at O'Hare International Airport on suspicion of him leaving the U.S. to join the Islamic State in Syria. Investigators found a note at the teen's home that indicated he was flying to Turkey, from where he would use a contact he met online to sneak him across the Syria border and join the Islamic State.
In remains unclear why the teen was stopped by authorities after passing through O'Hare security in the first place.
