He’s a U.S.-trained soldier turned Muslim warrior who moves between America and countries where the winds of the Arab spring blow, fighting alongside jihadists and America-hating terrorists while celebrating his bloody exploits on YouTube videos.
Eric Harroun, 30, grew up in Phoenix before joining the U.S. Army in 2000. Although Harroun was never deployed during his three-year hitch, he has seen plenty of combat fighting with Syrian rebels and, more recently, Jabhat al-Nusra, a group the U.S. State Department classifies as an alias for Al Qaeda in Iraq.
“I was separated in a battle and most of my group was K.I.A. and Al-Nusra picked me up,” Harroun told FoxNews.com during one ofseveralbrief interviews conducted via Skype.
Harroun, who said he is now in Turkey, shrugged off a question about fighting alongside Al Qaeda terrorists who have joined the Syrian rebellion, saying, “the U.S. plays both sides, too.” He said the offshoot of the terror group behind the 9/11 attacks welcomed him.
“Getting into Al-Nusra is not rocket science,” he said. “It just takes balls and brains.”
Harroun, known among Syrian rebels and loyalists alike as “The American,” has moved from one country to another, joining protesters in the takedown of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before fighting alongside rebels attempting to depose Syria‘s Bashar al-Assad. A prolific poster of online diatribes against the infidel, he’s joined the threads of those calling for the deaths of Zionists.
His father, Darryl Harroun, told FoxNews.com that his son was discharged from the Army after he was seriously injured while riding in a pickup truck that hit a tree. He was left with full disability pay and a steel plate in his head, according to his father.
“Now he has mood swings and what-not,” said Darryl Harroun, who lives in Arizona and talks to his son by phone frequently. “He was already suffering from depression before that, and the accident just kind of multiplied it.”
Darryl Harroun said his son is seen as an adventurer by friends and relatives, who call him “Arizona Jones.”
“He just loves that part of the world,” said Darryl Harroun, who said his family has been in the U.S. for several generations and is not Muslim. “We scratch our heads and wonder what the hell he’s doing. I told him, ‘You’re never going to change those people’s minds over there.’ But he says they treat him like a hero.
“I know one day I’m going to get a message from over there, telling me my son is dead,” he said.
Darryl Harroun said he doesn’t believe the U.S. — much less his own son — has any business in Middle Eastern affairs. But at least one family member seems to believe Harroun is fighting a noble battle.
“Keep fighting Eric!” Harroun’s sister, Sarah Harroun, posted on Facebook this week. “The people of Syria and you are in my prayers.”
Harroun’s descent into Islamic fanaticism seems to have begun sometime after his discharge from the military. With seemingly no way to pursue his lifelong dream of being a soldier, he …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News