Mohammed Khalifa, 39, admitted to executing two Syrian soldiers on videos.
Khalifa was born in Saudi Arabia, lived in Canada from a young age, earned a college degree in computer systems technology in Toronto, and then started watching online videos during the Arab Spring that eventually led him to Syria, particularly the lectures of the al-Qaeda organizer Anwar al-Awlaki, Khalifa stated in plea documents.
Khalifa admitted he joined the Islamic State in 2013 and was captured in 2019 after a firefight with the Syrian Democratic Forces. He swore a fighting oath twice to Islamic State leader “The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, employed media and propaganda masterfully as part of its campaign of terror during the 2013-2018 time period,” federal prosecutors said in a sentencing brief. Khalifa “served as one of the Islamic State’s most prolific propagandists during the terrorist organization’s surge” and “personally engaged in extreme acts of violence to further the goals of ISIS.
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