South Carolina man charged with trying to join Islamic State

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An 18-year-old South Carolina man accused of attempting to join Islamic State was arrested late Thursday before boarding a flight in Charleston, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.

Zakaryia Abdin of Ladson, South Carolina, appeared in federal court on Friday in Charleston on the charge of trying to aid a designated foreign terrorist organization, the department said in a statement.

The charge is based on Abdin’s suspected attempt to travel overseas to join Islamic State, whose fighters seized control of large areas of Syria and Iraq but have been losing ground in both countries.

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Abdin at Charleston International Airport, the statement said. It did not give details about the evidence against him.

It was not immediately clear if Abdin had a lawyer to comment on the case against him.

Forces backed by the United States, Turkey and Russia are advancing on Islamic State's Syrian stronghold of Raqqa. Iraqi government forces also retook several Iraqi cities last year and the eastern part of the city of Mosul.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Ian Simpson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Tom Brown)

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