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The Justice Department has announced that a naturalized US citizen has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for receiving military training from ISIS and participating in combat against US-led coalition forces in Syria.

Some shit you should know before you read: Back in 2015, Lirim Sylejmani, a naturalized US citizen originally from Kosovo, traveled from Kosovo to Syria with his family to join the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). According to the Department of Justice, Sylejmani completed the group’s intake process, adopted the alias Abu Sulayman al-Kosovi, and underwent a 21-day military training course. During this time, he learned to assemble and use firearms and grenades. After pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he was issued weapons and assigned to an ISIS battalion in Mosul, Iraq, where he later participated in frontline combat during the 2016 Manbij offensive.

Sylejmani continued his involvement with ISIS through 2019, receiving payments for his service and eventually relocating to Baghouz, Syria, with his family as the terrorist group’s territorial control collapsed. On February 27, 2019, he and his family were captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed, Kurdish-led militia. He was detained at Dashisha prison in Syria for over a year until he was transferred to US custody on September 15, 2020.

What’s going on now: Yesterday, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the US District Court for the District of Columbia sentenced Lirim Sylejmani to 10 years in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for his role with ISIS. Sylejmani was convicted after pleading guilty to three felony counts: conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, providing and attempting to provide such support, and receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist group.

In a statement, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said, “This defendant will spend a decade in prison thinking about the betrayal to this country. Anyone thinking that ISIS is the answer to their questions, best think again. We will go to any lengths to root out subversive individuals who want to overthrow the government and harm its citizens.”