A New Zealander who converted to Islam and joined ISIS has surrendered to Kurdish forces and is now being held in a Syrian prison.
Australia's ABC reports Mark Taylor, who is a former New Zealand Defence Force soldier, is now in custody as the caliphate he served for years as a border guard crumbled under military pressure.
Taylor, who also goes by the names Mohammad Daniel and Abu Abdul Rahman and is originally from Hamilton, had his visa cancelled by Australia in 2010 due to his suspected links to extremist groups.
The PM told TVNZ1’s Breakfast that she has explicitly warned not to travel to Syria because “we do not have the ability to give assistance”.
In 2014, he finally made it to Syria, where he joined the Islamic State and earned himself the nickname "The Bumbling Jihadi' after he revealed his location with geo-tagged Tweets in 2015.
In a radio interview, Taylor told ABC he had few regrets about his time with ISIS, except that he did not have enough money to be able to afford to buy a slave.
He said he initially taught English but was suspected to be a spy, and to prove himself he was asked to make a video urging sympathisers to attack soldiers and police in their home countries, including New Zealand and Australia.
"I actually did regret making that video and I know that the output was not good for my part - I know I'll probably spend time in jail for that video," he told ABC.
He said he left because "there was no food, no money, basic services were pretty much collapsed.
"I was in a pickle myself and had to make a final decision, which was to leave."
He said he was armed during his time as a border guard with an AK-47, but he only ever used it during practice.
Taylor also said he had been put in prison by ISIS himself before.
"I was accused of drinking alcohol and making alcohol and smoking hashish," he explained.
He spoke of his envy of other ISIS members who had purchased captured Yazidi women in marketplaces as slaves, saying he would have liked to have a slave himself to "clean the house".
Debate still swirls over whether the ISIS recruit should be able to return to New Zealand from Syria.
"If I had ownership of the lady, it basically entitled me to whatever I wanted to do as long as it was within the Islamic Sharia."
He said he would not have "forcefully" had sex with a slave, but when questioned whether or not all slaves are there forcefully against their will, he said "as far as I'm aware, that's not my concern".
"To buy a lady costs money and I would see from day to day ... someone would say to me, 'I bought a slave for like 5000, 10,000' ... and I'd think to myself I would like to have that type of money, but I never had any chance, so I had to stick to being married to a Syrian lady."
The Kurds do not want to keep the imprisoned IS fighters, and it is understood they will be seeking to ask their home countries, including New Zealand, to take them back and put them on trial.
It is believed he burned his New Zealand passport when he joined ISIS, but he says he applied for another passport in 2014. It is not known if he was successful.
Taylor remains a New Zealand citizen.
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