Boy in IS video relieved to be back in US

AN AMERICAN teenager who featured in an Islamic State video threatening Donald Trump while living with his mother and stepfather in Syria said it was a “relief ” to be back in the US.

Matthew, who was taken by his mother, Samantha Sally, and her husband, Moussa Elhassani, to live in IS’S caliphate in 2015, has spoken for the first time about his ordeal.

Matthew, now 13, said he had no choice but to take part in the video due to Elhassani’s control over him. “He was starting to lose it, like he was mentally unstable, very mentally unstable,” he told BBC Panorama in a documentary broadcast last night. “I was so young I did not really understand any of it.”

In one of the videos, Matthew was forced to recite lines he had been made to learn. “My message to Trump, the puppet of the Jews: Allah has promised us victory and he’s promised you defeat,” the 10-year-old told the camera.

Elhassani died in a suspected drone attack in the summer of 2017.

After his death, Sally managed to pay smugglers to help them escape. They were then brought back to the US, where Sally was convicted earlier this month of financing terrorism and sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

The US treats minors taken to Syria according to their age when they return. Last month, Jihad Ali, 19, was charged in New York with material support for a terrorist group after returning to the US with his father. Jihad had been taken to Syria aged just 14.

Describing how it felt to be back on US soil, Matthew, who now lives with his father, said: “It’s like being in tight clothes or tight socks and shoes all day and then just taking it off and just feeling nice and chilling in a hot bath. That’s what it felt like. Like sweet relief.”