By Li Hongmei

Eric Harroun, a U.S. Army veteran disclosed to the media recently that he had joined an offshoot of al Qaeda after spending several months fighting alongside Syrian rebel forces.

Harroun, known among Syrian rebels as 'the American," originally joined the U.S. Army in 2000 and he was discharged with full disability pay for an injury in 2003 without ever having seen battle, according to his father, Darryl Harroun. He was injured while riding in a pickup truck that hit a tree and he now has a steel plate in his head, said the father.

However, the Syrian rebel group Amr ibn al-'Aas Brigade said that Harron had been working with them until last month.

"He just loves that part of the world," Darryl Harroun said.

"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," said his father.