Two Americans accused of fighting for ISIS

On Sunday, January 6 a militia press release revealed that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured two Americans in Syria who are suspected of being fighters for ISIS. The two detainees have been identified as Warren Christopher Clark, age 34, and Zaid Abed al-Hamid, age 35.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, more commonly known as ISIS, began as a splinter group from Al Qaeda, an Islamic militant group. Founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and headquartered in Raqqa, Syria, ISIS has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations and many individual countries due to their frequent videos of beheadings and other forms of executions.

The ideology of ISIS represents a strict and puritanical form of Sunni Islam. ISIS is known for promoting religious violence and branding Muslims that do not agree with their interpretations as infidels. It is quite common for ISIS to recruit members, such as Clark and Hamid, from foreign countries..

Clark, one of the suspected ISIS fighters, graduated from public school in Houston, Texas, and then became an educator. His friends and family had been oblivious to the fact that Clark had converted to Islam and became radicalized online.

SDF did not specify where in the US Hamid was from, but extremism researchers say he may originally be from Trinidad. Simon Cottee, the author of a book about Trinidadian ISIS fighters, states on BBC, “Mr Hamid’s name appears on a database of 130 men from the Caribbean island nation who are believed to have joined the group.”

Clark and Hamid were in the Hajin area of eastern Syria when they were captured, hundreds of miles from Mosul. They had planned to attack a group of civilians who were looking to flee the war zone.

Clark and Hamid’s capture was not the first capture of foreign recruitments and it will likely not be the last. CNN has stated that “US officials have encouraged countries to repatriate their citizens in detention in Syria in order to ease the burden on the SDF’s detention facilities.” However, many countries are reluctant to do this due to the difficulty of prosecuting suspected ISIS members based on the evidence collected on the battlefield.

Although Trump claims that ISIS has been defeated in Syria, there is little doubt that this ruthless organization will continue its dreaded practice of  international recruitment.

Article by MoCo Student staff writer Faith Cheung of Richard Montgomery High School