Dearborn Man Sentenced To Prison For Fighting Alongside ISIS In Syria

DEARBORN, MI — A Dearborn man was sentenced to prison Thursday after federal officials said he fought alongside ISIS in Syria five years ago.

Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, 32, was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he was convicted on charges of providing and attempting to provide material support to ISIS, conspiring to provide material support to ISIS, and attending an ISIS training camp.

Officials said Musaibli, who was born in Detroit, began looking into ISIS in 2015 and traveled to Yemen later that year to further research ISIS. He downloaded ISIS propaganda and an ISIS book on how to get into Syria, officials said.

Once in Yemen, Musaibli traveled to Syria in the fall of 2015 and attended an ISIS-run religious training camp before undergoing ISIS military training, which taught him how to shoot, carry, and handle an AK-47 assault rifle, officials said.

After graduating from the ISIS military training camp, Musaibli swore allegiance to ISIS and its leader, officials said.

He remained with ISIS for over two and a half years before he was eventually wounded in battle and caught by Syrian Democratic Forces in 2018, officials said. He was then turned over to the FBI and flown back to the U.S. to face terrorism charges.

"This defendant chose to join a brutal, foreign terrorist organization and then to fight against the United States," U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said. "For his betrayal of our nation and his fellow citizens, he is deserving of a long sentence."