Kandic Faces Life in US for Assisting ISIS

US authorities on Wednesday charged Mirsad Kandic, a legal permanent resident of the US, with providing material support and resources to Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, ISIS.

He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, the US Department of Justice said.

Kandic, 36, was extradited from Sarajevo, Bosnia, to the US on Tuesday having been on Washington's "wanted" list for three years.

The US Justice Department said he has been charged with "conspiring to provide material support and resources to ISIS … resulting in death, and five counts of providing and attempting to provide material support and resources to ISIS, including personnel, equipment and false documentation and identification, including one count resulting in death".

Kandic was born in Kosovo in 1981 and moved later to Bronx and Brooklyn in the US.

He left the US in 2013 and travelled to Turkey to join ISIS. From there, he recruited individuals from the US, Britain, Australia and elsewhere, to travel to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq and fight.

According to the US Justice Department, in online communications with an associate, Kandic stated he worked in ISIS's Border Office in Turkey and was part of a team that conducted background checks of foreign fighters seeking to join ISIS in Syria.

In a recorded voice memo from Kandic to an associate, Kandic stated: "I have a lot of Mujahideen in Europe, a lot," and "I sent out over 20,000 brothers . . . to Sham."

ISIS members frequently used the term "Sham" to refer to the region of the Levant, including Syria.

According to the US Justice Department, Kandic expressed a desire to travel overseas to kill or maim US military forces even while he still lived in...