Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
A New Yorker who joined ISIS saw "severed heads placed on spiked poles" before bolting from the terror group after five months.
The 27-year-old man identified only as "Mo" told NBC News that joining ISIS was "obviously the worst decision I've ever made in my life."
"The Islamic State is not bringing Islam to the world, and people need to know that. And I'll say that ... till the day I die," he told the network.
During the interview, which will be seen Thursday night on "NBC Nightly News" and also on Sunday night's "Dateline," Mo recounts the horrors of his experience in Syria after being lured by the Islamic State.
"At one point towards the end as things were getting more and more serious, I did see severed heads placed on spiked poles," he told NBC News. "Like a lot of things, I just blocked it out."
A New Yorker who joined ISIS says he regrets the decision.
(AY-COLLECTION/SIPA/AY-COLLECTION/SIPA)
Mo's name was found in ISIS personnel files that have been verified by the U.S. government and obtained by NBC News.
Hundreds of Americans have joined ISIS in the last few years, including men such as Mo, who is highly educated, according to NBC News.
Mo was placed in custody after coming back to the U.S. He has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
"I'm helping in every sense that I can to help rid the world of the evil that I saw," he told NBC News. "And it's an arrow in my quiver every time I help."