One is a 21-year-old California man accused of trying to travel to Syria to join ISIS. The other a 17-year-old Virginia student charged with helping recruit for ISIS.
Charges against both were released Wednesday, and they are just the latest in a growing number of cases from the United States.
More than 20,000 foreigners have gone to fight for ISIS, the radical Islamist group that controls portions of Iraq and Syria, experts have told Congress.
National Intelligence Director James Clapper said 180 Americans have tried to go to fight in Syria. It’s unclear how many of those were attempting to join ISIS.
Here are some of them, starting with the most recent cases:
Adam Dandach
The 21-year-old California man was arrested last summer, but was indicted on Wednesday.
He’s accused by the FBI of attempting to provide himself and material support to work under the direction and control of ISIS.
His arraignment is scheduled for later this month.
Unidentified Virginia student
The 17-year-old Virginia student has been charged with helping recruit for ISIS, federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
The teen lives in a suburb of Washington and is accused of helping a slightly older adult travel to Syria. The adult is believed to have joined ISIS there.
He is also accused of distributing ISIS messages.
Abror Habibov, Akhror Saidakhmetov and Abdurasul Juraboev
Arrested last month in New York and Florida, they are accused by the federal government of attempting to join ISIS and of fostering plans to kill the President and shoot law enforcement officers.
The three men face charges that include attempting and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.
None were U.S. citizens, but Saidakhmetov, 19, and Juraboev, 24, had permanent resident status.
Habibov, 30, was in the United States legally, but overstayed his visa, police said.
Abdi Nur and Abdullah Yusuf
These two Minnesota men are charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
“As charged, these two young men conspired to join ISIL and travel from Minnesota to the Middle East to engage in a campaign of terror,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin said in November.
Nur is 20 and Yusuf is 18.
Mohammed Hamzah Khan
Kahn was arrested at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago in October.
The 19-year-old is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
In a letter to his parents, Kahn wrote that he was leaving the United States and on the way to join ISIS, court documents said.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Mufid A. Elfgeeh
Federal authorities accuse him of funding ISIS, trying to send jihadists to Syria to fight with the terrorist group and plotting to do some killing himself — by gunning down U.S. troops who had served in Iraq
The 30-year-old faces three counts of trying “to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization” (namely, ISIS), one count of attempting to kill officers and employees of the United States, two counts of having an unregistered firearm silencer and one for possessing guns or silencers “in furtherance of a crime of violence,” court documents say.
The federal investigation into Elfgeeh began in early 2013, but he wasn’t arrested until May 2014.
The attraction
Some 100 other Americans are believed to have either fought in Syria since 2011 or been arrested before they could get there, according to Peter Bergen, CNN’s national security analyst.
So far, no U.S. citizen involved in fighting or supporting ISIS or any other militant group has been charged with plotting to conduct an attack inside the United States, but that’s the fear.
Also, none of the successful terrorist attacks in the States since 9/11 — such as the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 or Maj. Nidal Hasan’s massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 — did any of the convicted or alleged perpetrators receive training overseas.
Former Jihadist Mubin Shaikh says many of those who are attracted to ISIS or other militant causes are struggling to combine their Muslim and Western identities.
“When you’re dealing with first, second, even third generation individuals from various ethnic backgrounds, there are still problems of acculturation and integration,” he said. They ask: “Who am I supposed to be? “
That’s the challenge mosques and Western governments will have to deal with, Shaikh said.
