JOINING UP

Study: Dozens of Americans Joined Jihadist Groups in Iraq and Syria

A disproportionate number of recruits coming from Virginia, Ohio, and Minnesota.

A new study of American foreign fighters found that at least 64 Americans traveled to Iraq and Syria to join jihadist groups. The study, carried out by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, used court documents to uncover dozens of the mostly unreported cases of Americans who disappeared at home and later resurfaced as militants in the Middle East. The fighters tended to be young, mostly male, and affiliated with ISIS, with a disproportionate number of recruits coming from Virginia, Ohio, and Minnesota. Only a dozen American foreign fighters have made it back to the U.S. after traveling abroad while the rest have either died in Syria or remain unaccounted for.