American ISIS Fighter from Alexandria Area: 'I Wasn't Thinking Straight'

PHOTO: Muhammad Jamal Khweis, 26, of the Alexandria area, is shown in this photo from a video posted Monday morning to Twitter by Kurdish fighter @ Kurdistan83 (earlier reports identified him as Muhammad Jamal Amin, 27).

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The American who left his home in the Alexandria area to allegedly join ISIS says he "wasn't thinking straight" when he left to go meet up with the terrorist group, he said in an interview on Kurdistan24.net, posted to the Internet.

The reported ISIS fighter who surrendered Monday, Muhammad Jamal Khweis, 26, walked into an area controlled by the Kurdish Peshmerga near the Turkish border, according to several reports. Peshmerga are the military forces of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Kurdistan24 posted its exclusive video interview Friday with Khweis, who reportedly deserted ISIS and turned himself into Kurdish fighters.

Fairfax County Public Schools identified the man as a 2007 graduate of Edison High School in the Kingstowne area of Fairfax County, according to a report by WUSA-9.

"I didn't really support their ideology," he says in the interview released Friday. "That's when I decided I needed to escape." Khweis crossed battle lines in search of Kurdish fighters, allies of the United States.

"I didn't see myself living in that environment," he said in the interview. "I wanted to go back to America."