ISIS terrorist
ISIS terroristReuters

A California man who tried to travel to Syria last year has been charged with attempting to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, prosecutors announced Wednesday, according to the AFP news agency.

Adam Dandach, 21 - also known as Fadi Fadi Dandach - was charged with trying to provide support to a foreign terrorist group and making a false passport application statement to facilitate terrorism, they said.

He was also indicted on one count of obstruction of justice for attempting to destroy records after his arrest last July. If convicted of all the charges, Dandach could face up to 25 years in prison.

When arrested, Dandach told FBI agents that he was traveling to Syria "for the purpose of pledging his alliance and assistance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS," according to court documents.

He added that "he believed the killings of American soldiers are justified," the documents say.

Dandach, who was arrested as he tried to board a plane bound for Turkey from a California airport on July 3 last year, is due to appear in court to be arraigned on March 16.

He is one among several cases of Americans who have attempted to leave their country to join ISIS.

Just last week, three New York residents were arrested for plotting to join ISIS in Syria.

One of the suspects had expressed intent to buy a machine gun and shoot police officers and FBI agents if thwarted in his plan to join ISIS.

Last October, three American teenage girls from a suburb of Denver were stopped in Germany on their way to join ISIS in Syria.

Three months earlier, in July, Shannon Maureen Conley (19) was arrested at Denver International Airport as she was on her way to join the group in Syria.