Report: Islamic State Appoints American Recruit ‘Senior Commander’

The son of an Albanian-American has reportedly pulled himself into the upper echelons of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), allegedly becoming an executioner suspected of beheading Kurdish prisoners, reports Defense One, citing a two-year investigation.

U.S. law enforcement now assesses that Zulfi Hoxha, the son of an Albanian-American pizza shop owner in New Jersey, “has become an ISIS senior commander,” reveals Defense One, noting that he is one of the few U.S. citizens to reach ISIS’s upper ranks.

While highlighting online evidence that identifies the alleged American ISIS chief, Defense One notes:

None of it compares to the ISIS propaganda video that, according to multiple law-enforcement officials, shows Hoxha beheading captured Kurdish soldiers. If they are right about his identity, Hoxha is the first American Islamic State member known to be beheading individuals in such a video.

Hoxha is now known to have become a senior commander of Islamic State and one of the faces of the group’s recruitment efforts, according to federal court records.

Defense One points out that there is evidence scattered across the internet that Hoxha “had sinister plans” in mind.

The news outlet notes that, through his now-defunct Twitter handle, the American attempted to discuss ISIS with a U.S. Department of State (DOS) Department counter-propaganda account.

“Then there’s the fact that he used the social-networking site Paltalk, a communications platform reportedly popular among Western jihadis,” adds Defense One.

Since the group broke off from al-Qaeda in Iraq in mid-2014 and officially became ISIS, the United States has struggled to defang its ideology efforts online.

By mid-2016, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) conceded that the United States was in “crisis mode” trying to prevent ISIS from gaining ground in cyberspace.

Now, as the group’s so-called caliphate is collapsing, the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), a component of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), warned that American-led coalition and its allies have failed to take a toll on the terrorist group’s global reach, particularly online.

Nevertheless, the U.S. counter-propaganda operations targeting ISIS have not all been in vain.

Authorities detected Hoxha’s nefarious plans, courtesy of such efforts.

In early April 2015, the American allegedly turned ISIS executioner left the United States to join the jihadist group.

Within six months, the Islamic State featured Hoxha as one of the group’s decapitators in a propaganda video, notes Defense One, citing multiple law enforcement officials.

The ISIS presence in America is often limited to so-called “lone wolves” or “stray dog” jihadists, as one U.S. national security official puts it, referring to terrorists who claim allegiance to the Islamic State without significant formal connections either to the group’s members overseas or likeminded individuals in the United States.

However, “stories like that of Zulfi Hoxha are a reminder of the existence and importance of jihadist recruitment networks in the United States,” notes Defense One.

ISIS has been able to retain its ability online to mobilize homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) “lone offenders attacks” against the United States even as its so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria “collapses,” according to a top intelligence official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

As the ISIS caliphate falls in the Middle East, U.S. officials have expressed concerns about the return of foreign fighters to the United States and Europe from where they can enter America with ease.

ISIS has long been urging its supporters and sympathizers to carry out attacks wherever they may be, particularly the United States and Europe.