A former Islamic State militant recently spoke to NBC news about his experience fighting with the group in Syria - and why he surrendered after just three days on the front lines.

The man, a 24-year-old single father and college dropout who traveled from New York back to his native Turkey told NBC a by-now familiar story. Socially isolated and lacking meaning in his life, he was seduced by the jihadis' promise of a salary, a house, and a wife.

"My life was hard and nobody liked me," the man, who insisted on anonymity, said while crying. "I didn't have many friends. I was on the Internet a lot and playing games."


promise of community, along with the

ISIS's inclusive rhetoric, combined with its social media prowess, has allowed the group to recruit more foreigners to its ranks than any other modern jihadist group.

This is a common profile among ISIS recruits, who are often young men (and women) seeking purpose and identit . They're drawn to ISIS'sglory of potential martyrdom.

Firsthand accounts of the militants' brutality from those who have fought alongside ISIS, like the one given by the Turkish-American recruit, are still relatively rare, event though an estimated 20,000 foreign fighters have joined the group.

"They told us, 'When you capture someone, you will behead them,'" he said. "But as for me, I have never even beheaded a chicken … It is not easy… I can't do that."


He says he was also instructed to throw homosexuals off of tall buildings and kill female adulterers. He says he decided to leave ISIS after an airstrike killed six of his fellow fighters in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad.


"I got scared because in my whole life I hadn't seen anything like this," he told NBC. "And since I was scared, I threw my pistol away and my legs couldn't hold me."

The online radicalization of Muslims has become a security threat for the West: An estimated 4,000 ISIS recruits come from Western countries, and foreigners now make up at least half of ISIS' fighting force, the New York Times reported in April.

Many disgruntled recruits have tried to return to their home country after traveling to the "Caliphate" and finding that ISIS is less glamorous than advertised, the Independent reported.

"I've done hardly anything but hand out clothes and food," a French recruit wrote in a letter home obtained by Le Figaro. "I've also cleaned weapons and moved the bodies of killed fighters. Winter is beginning. It's starting to get tough."


The man interviewed by NBC may have escaped the Islamic State. But the interview was held in a Syrian prison where he is being held captive by Kurdish forces.

He will only be free in death, the ex-fighter told reporters.

"They burn your life, they leave nothing," he said. "I can't do anything now. If I go to them [ISIS], they will kill me. If I go to Turkey, they will arrest me. If I stay here, I will go to prison. I have nothing. The only escape for me is death."

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