ISIS
ISISReuters

A Connecticut man was arrested on Sunday after attempting to travel to the Middle East to join and fight for the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group, the Department of Justice said on Monday, according to NBC News.

The man, 22-year-old Ahmad Khalil Elshazly of West Haven, appeared before a federal judge in New Haven on Monday and ordered detained, the report said.

According to federal prosecutors, Elshazly was concerned about being stopped by law enforcement at the airport. Instead, he made arrangements to travel by container ship to Turkey.

Elshazly was arrested after he arrived in Stonington, where prosecutors said he expected to board a ship to begin his trip to the Middle East.

As early as September 2018, Elshazy is alleged to have made comments to people in person and online, that he wanted to travel to Syria and the surrounding area to fight on behalf of ISIS.

The criminal complaint says Elshazy met with other individuals in October and talked about how he wanted to fight for ISIS.

Since 2013, American prosecutors have charged hundreds of radicalized individuals, mostly with crimes related to support for ISIS.

In July, two refugees from Somalia were arrested in Arizona and accused of providing material support to ISIS.

In June, a man was arrested after he discussed purchasing explosives with the intention of detonating them in New York's Times Square.

In April, a US Army veteran was arrested for allegedly plotting a large-scale terror attack near Los Angeles.

Earlier that month, a Maryland man was charged with stealing a rental truck that he wanted to use to kill pedestrians at National Harbor in Maryland, in an attack similar to the 2016 truck terror attack in Nice, France.