--- title: ISIL: Some American ISIS Fighters Back in U.S., Obama Admin Says description: First official government confirmation that at least some of the Americans fighting alongside ISIS have come home canonical: https://time.com/3418455/isis-isil-barack-obama-us/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-22T15:46:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:38.216Z article:section: Politics og:title: ISIL: Some American ISIS Fighters Back in U.S., Obama Admin Says og:description: First official government confirmation that at least some of the Americans fighting alongside ISIS have come home og:url: https://time.com/3418455/isis-isil-barack-obama-us/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa9bba8a49aff868/6986a493361760a93a90dfbd/barack-obama-isis-return1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3097 og:image:height: 1742 og:image:alt: President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum, on Sept. 19, 2014, in Washington. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: ISIL: Some American ISIS Fighters Back in U.S., Obama Admin Says twitter:description: First official government confirmation that at least some of the Americans fighting alongside ISIS have come home twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa9bba8a49aff868/6986a493361760a93a90dfbd/barack-obama-isis-return1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Some Americans Fighting With Terror Groups Have Returned to the U.S., Obama Administration Says > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=90424a68-9a42-4e6e-a6a6-cd63c1e8c825&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Why So Many Foreign Fighters Join ISIS [Watch (HLS stream): Why So Many Foreign Fighters Join ISIS](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xvTQSd5R.m3u8) (2:58)  _Published 2014-09-05. A growing number of foreigners is joining the Islamic militant group - but why?_ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Sep 22, 2014 3:46 PM UTC  President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum, on Sept. 19, 2014, in Washington. President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum, on Sept. 19, 2014, in Washington. Evan Vucci—AP by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Sep 22, 2014 3:46 PM UTC The Obama Administration believes some Americans who have fought alongside the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) have returned to the United States, a senior Administration official said Monday. During a briefing for reporters Monday in the ornate Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the Administration’s efforts to address the issue of so-called foreign terrorist fighters, the official said that the latest assessment from National Counterterrorism Center is that more than 100 Americans have attempted to fight in Iraq and Syria alongside ISIS, the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front or other groups. “It includes those who’ve gone, those who’ve tried to go, some who’ve come back and are under active—the FBI is looking at them,” the official said. “These are FBI matters, I refer you to them on specifics.” It marked the first official government confirmation that at least some of the Americans fighting alongside the Islamist extremist group have returned to the U.S. As late as Monday morning, Secretary of State John Kerry said on MSNBC that “we have over 100 fighters there from America,” leaving out any mention of Americans who have returned. President Barack Obama convened a meeting of his National Security Council last Wednesday to “discuss the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters to the U.S. homeland and nations around the world and the Administration’s whole-of-government strategic response,” the White House said. Obama will chair a UN Security Council summit Wednesday on the subject, where the international body is expected to pass a resolution establishing an international legal framework for addressing the spread of foreign fighters. Obama and other Administration officials have repeatedly warned about Americans or Europeans who have fought alongside ISIS potentially entering the United States and causing harm. “Well, with respect to the Americans who may be engaged in combat in Iraq and Syria, this is something that our national security agencies and counterterrorism team are taking very seriously,” National Security Advisor Susan Rice said Friday. “It’s something we track closely. And we are doing obviously all that we can to both gather the necessary information and take the appropriate precautions to the greatest extent that we possibly can.” Another official highlighted the myriad ways in which the Administration can prevent foreign fighters from returning to the U.S., including placing them on no-fly lists, adding airport screening measures and seizing their passports. But the first official would not discuss the specific measures used to keep Americans who have fought alongside ISIS from returning to the U.S. “This is worked on a case by case basis,” the official said, “I defer to the FBI.” The official said the NCTC believes that 15,000 fighters from 80 countries have tried to fight in Iraq and Syria, including 2,000 Europeans and the more than 100 Americans. ## Transcript The Islamic state of Iraq and greater Syria is quickly making a name for itself as one of the most ruthless militias in the Middle East. But the extremist group is also making headlines for its successful recruitment of Western volunteers. Hundreds of fighters from at least 50 different countries and known to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to wage war under the ISIS flag. Here's a close look at how the group is recruiting them. And [ UNKNOWN ] says that what gives you life is Jihad. I know by a law that this the land of Jihad. We have brothers from Bangladesh, from Iraq, from Cambodia, Australia, UK. Nothing has has [ INAUDIBLE ] In one video posted on YouTube, new recruits are enticed to respond to the call of jihad by a fighter who's filmed walking down stairs. Of a four star hotel in the town of Kasab in northwestern Syria. [ FOREIGN ] The fighter tells recruits they can sleep there for free. ISIS also tweeted, during the World Cup, with the hashtag WorldCup2014. In an attempt to steer soccer fans to the group's sleekly produced propaganda. ISIS initially portrayed itself as being part of a humanitarian effort to back fellow Sunni Muslims in the Syrian civil war. That promise of a fight to protect Muslim brothers and sisters, is a powerful draw for some Western recruits. But in reality, ISIS has been targeting Sunnis as well as Shia Muslims, and other religious minorities in its campaign to control territory. [ MUSIC ] Isis also accomplished something Al- queda has never been able to achieve. It has declared self styled Islamic palafite in an area that spans parts of Iraq and Syria. And it's apparent ability to create some sort of stability in a war zone has proved attracted to some western Muslims. ISIS makes a particular effort to be welcoming to foreigners. ISIS normally accepts any Muslim into its ranks whereas some other Islamist groups in Syria ask for fighters to align with their specific ideology. For these young, restless foreigners. Isis can appear to offer a sense of mission. The challenge for the West, to persuade vulnerable young Muslims that all Isis really offers is the distortion of Islam and not a perfect Islamic state. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3418455/isis-isil-barack-obama-us/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3418455/isis-isil-barack-obama-us/"},"headline":"Some Americans Fighting With Terror Groups Have Returned to the U.S., Obama Administration Says","datePublished":"2014-09-22T15:46:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:38.216Z","description":"First official government confirmation that at least some of the Americans fighting alongside ISIS have come home","url":"https://time.com/3418455/isis-isil-barack-obama-us/","keywords":["National Security","ISIS","ISIL"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa9bba8a49aff868/6986a493361760a93a90dfbd/barack-obama-isis-return1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa9bba8a49aff868/6986a493361760a93a90dfbd/barack-obama-isis-return1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum, on Sept. 19, 2014, in Washington.","caption":"President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum, on Sept. 19, 2014, in Washington.","creditText":"Evan Vucci—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/national-security/","name":"National Security"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3418455/isis-isil-barack-obama-us/","name":"Some Americans Fighting With Terror Groups Have Returned to the U.S., Obama Administration Says"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Why So Many Foreign Fighters Join ISIS","description":"A growing number of foreigners is joining the Islamic militant group - but why?","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xvTQSd5R/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-09-05T19:18:34.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xvTQSd5R.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3418455/isis-isil-barack-obama-us/","duration":"PT2M58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3418455/isis-isil-barack-obama-us/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```