The FBI has received a significant number of tips from the agency's request for help in the identification of a masked man that appeared in a propaganda video by ISIS.
The information was revealed by Carl Ghattas, the FBI agent that is heading the Counter-Terrorism Division of the Washington Field Office.
Ghattas said that the FBI wants to find out if any citizen has any knowledge that could be beneficial in the identification of the masked man, who could have lived for a while in either the United States or Canada.
The general public began their assistance of the FBI after the agency posted a clip of the propaganda video on the Internet, which lasts for 55 minutes and is entitled "Flames of War."
The video shows the man who wants to be identified by the FBI whose face is covered by a black mask but has a voice that is described by the agency as having an accent of a person from North America.
The man in the video is standing in front of several prisoners that are shown to be digging what would be their own graves.
"This is the end they face," the masked man said, adding that the digging prisoners are captured soldiers of Syria.
ISIS has published several videos that show extreme acts of graphic violence, with several showing the beheading of citizens from the United States and Europe.
The group has gained control of territories across most of Syria and the northern portion of Iraq, where the militants have captured major towns in the province of Anbar to the west of Baghdad.
The United States, meanwhile, is leading Arab and European allies in a bombing mission that looks to halt the advances of the group.
The authorities have growing concerns over departure of citizens from the United States and Europe towards Syria to join ISIS, which would lead to them becoming more radical in thinking, and then returning back home to the country where they came from to carry out acts of terrorism.
Jeh Johnson, the secretary for Homeland Security, said last month to Congress that as many as 15,000 people have gone to Syria to join the fight over the previous three years. Of these people, as many as 2,000 were from the United States or Europe.
The general public has shown the willingness to assist the FBI in curtailing the terrorism threat though, especially with the agency showing willingness to receive help from any potential source.
The FBI published an ISIL tips form on the agency's website, which allowed the FBI to crowdsource leads regarding the masked man. The form also allowed the FBI to identify United States residents that may be planning to join ISIS or another terrorist group.
"We need the public's assistance in identifying U.S. persons going to fight overseas with terrorist groups or who are returning home from fighting overseas," said FBI Counter-Terrorism Division vice president Michael Steinbach in a statement.
