NewsNational News

Actions

American citizen arrested, allegedly joined ISIS as a sniper

Posted at 11:17 AM, Jul 19, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-19 18:55:24-04

An American citizen has been charged with assisting ISIS as a weapons instructor and a sniper, according to a press release from the Justice Department.

According to the press release, Ruslan Maratovich Asainov was born in Kazakhstan but is a naturalized American citizen who lived in New York. The Justice Department alleges that traveled to Syria in 2013 to join ISIS as a sniper.

Asainov allegedly rose to the level of "emir" in the organization and helped the group obtain weapons. He also allegedly tried to recruit a person living in the United States to join the terror group.

Asainov allegedly expressed the desire to die on the battlefield for ISIS

Asainov was arrested in Syria and "recently transferred into FBI custody.

More on this as it develops.