Two American men are being charged with getting behind the Islamic State group, The Justice Department said. One of them is currently in the Middle East fighting with the group, Yahoo News reported on Tuesday.
Abdi Nur, 20 and Abdullahi Yusuf, 18, who are both Somali Americans, are being charged with "conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, namely, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said.
Nur traveled to Turkey in May, a route many would-be Jihadists pass through to fight with the group, and was said to have returned to the United States in June, but didn't.
"More than 16,000 recruits from over 90 countries traveled to Syria to become foreign terrorist fighters with alarming consequences," Carlin said.
Minnesota, which has a large Somali population, has seen dozens of people leaving to join Jihadists over the past seven years. Recently they've gone to Syria to join ISIS and other groups, while many have gone to Somalia to join al Shabaab, CBS News reported.
"Since al-Shabaab began recruiting young adults from the Twin Cities in 2007, our region has lost dozens of disaffected young people to terrorist organizations that would sooner see Somali Minnesotans die on foreign battlefields than prosper in peace and security in the United States," Luger said.
Government officials have identified about 12 Americans fighting with ISIS in the Middle East. At least 100 have left the U.S. to try to join the Islamistic militant groups.
