Federal prosecutors in Connecticut said they arrested Ahmad Khalil Elshazly, 22, on Sunday on charges of attempting to provide material support to Islamic State, which US authorities have designated a foreign terrorist organisation. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

A federal judge on Monday ordered Elshazly be held without bail.

In court filings, federal agents say Elshazly told others starting in September 2018 that he wanted to travel to Syria or nearby to fight with Islamic State. In the presence of government informants, he pledged loyalty to Islamic State and said he wished the United States would “burn in fire”.

However, he said he was having trouble finding a way to reach IS territory. Elshazly decided against traveling by airplane last week, according to a government informant, because he was worried he would be stopped at the airport.

On Saturday, he handed another government informant US$500 to pay for transport on a fishing boat that would take him to a container ship headed for Turkey.

He was arrested at a marina in Stonington, Connecticut as he approached a person he thought was the captain of a fishing boat, according to court documents.

As of November, 200 individuals had been charged in the United States on offenses related to Islamic State and 147 had pleaded or been found guilty, according to George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.

Military operations by Turkey, Syria and Kurdish fighters have largely eliminated territorial holdings that Islamic State once ruled in the Middle East.

But European and US counter-terrorism officials fear recruits who return to Europe and would-be fighters like Elshazly who surf jihadist websites still pose a potentially significant threat of violence.