Like a trailer for a summer blockbuster, the video begins with loud music and the words “Coming Soon.”
But instead of superheroes or comedians on screen, there are images of a burning American flag and a jetliner hitting the World Trade Center, and the words: “Join the Caravan of Jihad and Martyrdom.”
As the music fades away, the blurred face of a man appears. He makes a direct appeal to Americans to join the fight.
The video ends with footage of a United States passport being burned. Men are heard laughing and shouting an Arabic phrase about God’s greatness.
Although the recruitment video has circulated among extremist groups for some days, intelligence analysts now believe the man with the blurred face is a 22-year-old from Florida who blew himself up last month in a suicide attack on Syrian government forces that killed 37, according to senior American government officials.
The man, Moner Mohammad Abusalha, who took his own life in a truck bombing mission, is one of roughly 100 Americans who have tried to travel to Syria to fight alongside Islamic extremists, or who have actually done so. American officials express deep concerns that the video may inspire others to follow his path.
The American authorities had tracked his indirect travels to Syria, but they knew very little about him at the time. It is not illegal to travel there, and many others have done so for humanitarian reasons. It was only after he arrived in Syria that the authorities here learned through intelligence sources that he was planning a suicide attack, senior American officials said.
Once Mr. Abusalha’s intentions were clear, there was little the United States could do to stop him because there are no American or allied forces in Syria, and certainly none who could have taken action inside the militant organization that Mr. Abusalha had joined, according to government officials. Had the authorities known before he arrived in Syria that he intended to fight alongside extremists, they most likely would have had enough evidence to charge him with providing material support to terrorists, as they have done with several other Americans.
The officials declined to say how the United States obtained intelligence that he was fighting alongside militants and was planning to blow himself up in a suicide truck-bomb attack. But in the past year, the authorities have obtained similar information in Syria from contacts on the ground, electronic intercepts like cellphones and foreign intelligence agencies.
As the unrest in Syria has spread into Iraq recently, and the group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has gained ground, American and European authorities have grown increasingly concerned that some of their citizens may be traveling to Syria to take up the militants’ cause.
One area of concern in the United States is Minnesota, where the F.B.I. has received reports that several young men of Somali descent there have traveled to Syria to fight, officials said. Starting in 2007, a number of men of Somali descent in Minnesota and elsewhere in the United States have traveled to Somalia to fight alongside Islamist extremists. At least three carried out suicide attacks there.
“There’s an active investigation ongoing to discern how many have traveled there,” said Kyle Loven, a spokesman for the F.B.I.’s Minneapolis field office.
There have been countless videos, Twitter posts and other pieces of propaganda released by extremists since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A number of them have highlighted American citizens. But this video is believed to be the first that features an American in the expanding attempts to recruit other Americans to go fight in Syria. It comes amid growing fears among American and European officials about young men flocking to fight in Syria and Iraq, who may return as battle-hardened fighters to commit violence at home.
“We’ve had Saudis, Algerians, Russians but never an American featured in a propaganda video, and Americans are the best poster boys for propaganda,” said Laith Alkhouri, a senior analyst at Flashpoint Global Partners, a security consulting firm that tracks militant websites, referring to the conflict in Syria. “It is the United States who is leading the war on terror. And what they’re saying is, ‘We have Americans, we are here to welcome Americans. Don’t hesitate to travel to come join the fight.’ ”
Although the suicide bomber was not identified by nationality or name, a video was circulated last month that appears to have documented Mr. Abusalha’s mission. That previous video shows rebels loading what appear to be tank shells into a large vehicle that had been armored with metal plates. Later, there is a large explosion after the vehicle drives down a road.
Mr. Abusalha was born in Florida, played basketball as a teenager and was known as “Mo.” In high school, he would often sneak out to pray instead of study. His mother is American and his father Palestinian. They owned grocery stores in the Vero Beach, Fla., area.
After graduating from high school, he enrolled in three colleges but dropped out of each, and in 2012, he told friends he was moving to Orlando. Shortly thereafter he told friends he was moving to Jordan to take courses as a nursing assistant.
In the past year, he lost touch with his parents. His friends believe that he was recruited by extremists while he was living in Jordan. In Syria, he adopted a nom de guerre, Abu Huraira al-Amriki. He spent two months in a training camp of Nusra Front, the militant group, in Aleppo before going to the northern province of Idlib, where he carried out the suicide attack.
In the video clip of the man with the blurred face, he points at the camera and pats his chest as he describes why Americans should travel to Syria to fight. He uses the Arabic word “haq,” which means divine obligation.
“Jihad is protecting Islam,” he said. “It is now haq on you to protect your brothers and oppressed, and it’s haq on you to fight,” he said.
The video that appeared to feature the suicide bomber was released last month by the Global Islamic Media Front. That group has put out similar ones from Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. The video did not say which group the suicide bomber had joined. But it has been billed as a preview for a larger clip that will soon be released about an American martyr who died fighting a holy war in Syria, according to analysts who monitor extremists’ websites and online chatter.
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