British Ice Cream Seller Who Joined Islamic State in Syria Begging to Come Home

A British ice cream seller who fled to join the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria five years ago is begging to come home because he misses his mother and his former life in Cardiff, Wales.

Aseel Muthana left Wales in February 2014 to join the jihadist group along with his brother Nasser and another friend, Reeyad Khan. His family feared he had been killed, but Muthana has resurfaced at a northern Syria prison camp and is now pleading to come home.

All three were featured in one of the first propaganda videos ISIS used to attract western recruits.

Muthana, who is now 22 years old, claimed in an ITV interview that he joined ISIS and traveled to Syria to “help the poor.”

“Back then when I first came to ISIS, you have to understand I came way before the caliphate was pronounced,” he said. “Before all of these beheading videos, before all of the burnings happened, before any of that stuff.”

“We came when ISIS propaganda and ISIS media was all about helping the poor, helping the Syrian people,” Muthana added.

The widely publicized ISIS beheadings came later in 2014 when ISIS militants beheaded journalist James Foley and others, broadcasting their murders in widely disseminated propaganda videos.

Nasser Muthana, Aseel’s brother, appeared in one of those propaganda videos in 2014 where he said, “The UK is afraid I’ve come back with the skills I’ve acquired.” It is unclear what Nasser’s fate has been since then.

Khan was killed in a drone strike in 2015. Muthana is currently in a secret Syrian prison along with 5,000 inmates inside its packed cells.