An American teenager was rounded up along with seven other ISIS jihadis from foreign countries in the town of Hajin, Syria — just days after two other American ISIS militants were captured, Stars and Stripes reported Wednesday.
According to the military news outlet, the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, said they had captured Soulay Noah Su, 16, who had been going by the alias Abu Souleiman al-Amriki, as well as citizens of Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan.
The group announced over the weekend they had captured two purported Americans, including a Texan who had once applied to teach English to ISIS students in Mosul.
At least five Americans have been picked up on the battlefield, said Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the George Washington University Program on Extremism, which tracks extremists and first identified the Texan who tried to join ISIS as a teacher.
The program has identified more than 70 adults — mostly U.S. citizens or legal residents — who traveled from the United States to Iraq or Syria to join jihadi groups since 2011, Stars and Stripes reported. The FBI has said about 300 Americans have left or tried to leave America to join ISIS.
As U.S.-backed forces in Syria close in on the final pockets of ISIS fighters near the Iraqi border, militants are trying to flee and planning to slow their opponents by attacking civilians, the YPG said in a statement, Stars and Stripes reported.
The YPG lead the Syrian Democratic Forces, which are partnered with the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition.
Seven American minors known to have lived in jihadi-controlled territory have returned to the United States, Hughes said. All but one were elementary school-aged children who had not been involved in acts of violence.
What makes the case for the teen captured unique is he has been described as a "foreign fighter," Hughes said, Stars and Stripes reported.
"It's one thing if he left when he was 16 and somehow got over there — it's another thing if he's been over there for five years in the mix," Hughes said, the outlet reported. "Intent plays a big part."