USA v. Khweis, Mohamad Jamal
Alexandria, VA

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)

[EDVA] Mohamad Jamal Khweis of Alexandria, Virginia, was charged with providing and conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Khweis was detained by Kurdish Peshmerga military forces in March 2016 in northern Iraq after leaving an ISIL-controlled neighborhood in Tal Afar, Iraq. Khweis out of Baltimore-Washington International Airport to begin his travel to join ISIL in mid-December 2015. His travel included stops in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands before ultimately crossing into Syria through Turkey with the help of ISIL facilitators. Khweis admitted that he stayed in an ISIL safe house in Raqqa, Syria, with other ISIL recruits who were going through an intake process, and at one point during the intake process, answered yes when asked by ISIL if he would be a suicide bomber. Khweis also admitted to participating in ISIL-directed religious training for nearly one month in preparation for his service to ISIL.