[FoxNews] He's a U.S.-trained soldier turned Moslem warrior who moves between America and countries where the winds of the Arab spring blow, fighting alongside jihadists and America-hating Islamic fascisti while celebrating his bloody exploits on YouTube videos.Eric Harroun, 30, grew up in Phoenix before joining the U.S. Army in 2000. Although Harroun was never deployed during his three-year hitch, he has seen plenty of combat fighting with Syrian rebels and, more recently, Jabhat al-Nusra, a group the U.S. State Department classifies as an alias for Al Qaeda in Iraq.
His father, Darryl Harroun, told FoxNews.com that his son was discharged from the Army after he was maimed while riding in a pickup truck that hit a tree. He was left with full disability pay and a steel plate in his head, according to his father.
"Now he has mood swings and what-not," said Darryl Harroun, who lives in Arizona and talks to his son by phone frequently. "He was already suffering from depression before that, and the accident just kind of multiplied it."
Darryl Harroun said his son is seen as an adventurer by friends and relatives, who call him "Arizona Jones."
"He just loves that part of the world," said Darryl Harroun, who said his family has been in the U.S. for several generations and is not Moslem. "We scratch our heads and wonder what the hell he's doing. I told him, 'You're never going to change those people's minds over there.' But he says they treat him like a hero.
Harroun's descent into Islamic fanaticism seems to have begun sometime after his discharge from the military. With seemingly no way to pursue his lifelong dream of being a soldier, he fell in with two Iraqi brothers, Maadh and Hayder Ibrahim, who he met while attending Pima Community College in Tucson, and began to identify himself as a Moslem, according to people who know him.
He became active on anti-Israeli message boards, posting virulent rants against Zionism as well as his own uploaded images and videos.
In Syria, Harroun has become so well known that a pro-regime video was created claiming that "The American" is a "criminal from Miami." A mugshot and rap sheet are provided as proof of Harroun's criminal past, but the picture in the video does not resemble Harroun.
In recent months, Harroun has appeared in several online videos alongside Syrian rebels fighting in Damascus
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. Described in his Facebook profile as a Sunni Moslem, Harroun has posted in several threads claiming to have personally killed several Shabiha (supporters of the Assad regime), Syrian soldiers and an Iranian.
"I hate bad guys like Bashar [Assad]," Harroun told FoxNews.com. "I hate Iran, too. I am a freedom fighter."