Zulfi Hoxha, the American killer within ISIS

Zulfi Hoxha is Albanian-American in his mid-twenties who lived in New Jersey. His family owned a pizza restaurant there.

He left the US and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He was recently filmed slaughtering Kurdish soldiers.

Hoxha, now a senior member of the terrorist organization, was the first American national to carry out such an operation.

According to media reports, Hoxha started contacting extremists in 2010 through social media, and Paltalk, in particular.

He left the US on April 6, 2015, according to US records, and headed to Istanbul, Turkey. He then entered Syria and reached ISIS-controlled areas in the war-torn country quickly.

In June, 2017, Hoxha appeared in an ISIS video where he was called Abu Hamza. He lashed out at the US and called on ISIS sympathizers to stage attacks in it.

US authorities then started a crackdown on ISIS backers, including some people who were believed to have helped Hoxha travel to Syria. One of the people arrested within the crackdown was David Wright who was sentenced to 28 years in jail at the end of 2017.

Wright was convicted of offering financial support to ISIS and conspiring to kill American nationals. Evidence emerged during Wright’s trial of his ties to Hoxha.

According to US security agencies, Hoxha has become an ISIS leader. It is believed that the video where he appeared was filmed in the northwestern part of Iraq. This means that he might have already left Syria to Iraq.