WASHINGTON _ A U.S. citizen who allegedly fought for the Islamic State has surrendered to American-backed forces in Syria and is in U.S. custody, according to the Pentagon, a rare case of an American captured on the battlefield.
U.S. officials declined to publicly identity the American or say where he surrendered or under what circumstances, but they described him as a "known enemy combatant."
"The U.S. citizen is being legally detained by Department of Defense personnel as a known enemy combatant," Maj. Earl Brown, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.
He referred questions to the Justice Department, but officials there declined to comment on whether or when the American would be charged and brought before a judge, as the law requires.
Brown said the American was taken into custody on or before Tuesday by Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militia fighters in Syria.
The alliance has taken part in the U.S.-backed air and ground offensive aimed at forcing Islamic State militants out of Raqqa, the group's self-declared capital in Syria.
The Daily Beast first reported the American fighter's surrender.
Thousands of foreign fighters from around the globe flocked to Iraq and Syria after the Islamic State first captured vast parts of the two countries in 2014 and proclaimed an Islamist caliphate.
Although the FBI conducted hundreds of investigations and made scores of arrests for raising money or providing support to the Islamic State, relatively few Americans made their way to the front lines as combatants.
One who did, Mohamad Jamal Khweis of Alexandria, Va., was grabbed in western Iraq by Kurdish guerrillas in March 2016 and later turned over to U.S. authorities.
A federal jury convicted Khweis, 27, in June of providing and conspiring to provide material support or resources to the Islamic State, and a related firearms count.
He faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of life in prison when he is sentenced on Oct. 13.
