Young Miss. Couple Planned to Join ISIS in Syria

A young Mississippi couple has been arrested on charges of trying to join ISIS in Syria.

The couple, 20-year-old Jaelyn Delshaun Young of Vicksburg, and 22-year-old Muhammad "Mo" Dakhlalla from Starkville, got married in June under Islamic law.

They told their families they were going on their honeymoon. But the FBI had been keeping tabs on them and arrested them at the Golden Triangle Airport in Mississippi right before they boarded their flight to Turkey.

Undercover agents pretending to be terrorists had been exchanging messages with the couple online.

The government says FBI agents began interacting online with Young in May about her desire to travel to Syria to join the group. According to federal officials, her Twitter page said the only thing keeping her from traveling to Syria was her need to earn money.

"I just want to be there," she is quoted as saying. In later conversations peppered with Arabic phrases, she said she planned a "nikkah," or Islamic marriage to Dakhlalla so they could travel without a chaperone under Islamic law.

Prosecutors also point to handwritten farewell letters the couple left for their families saying they would never return.

Meanwhile, the families of Young and Dakhlalla are still trying to come to grips with the accusations.

Dakhlalla's family is "absolutely stunned" by his arrest, said lawyer Dennis Harmon, who represents the family. He said Tuesday they have been cooperating with the FBI.

Dakhlalla's father, Oda H. Dakhlalla, is the longtime imam of the Islamic Center of Mississippi in Starkville, and has previously been reported to be a native of Bethlehem in Israel.

Members of the couple's Mississippi communities are also in shock.

"It's terrifying. I know that it's something that's happening throughout the United States, but it doesn't seem like something that would be going on here," one woman said.

The couple is being held without bond.