Wednesday September 24, 2014
The National Post is reporting a 20-year-old Hamilton man may have been killed last week while fighting for ISIS in Northern Syria.
Foreign Affairs is attempting to confirm that a 20-year-old Hamilton man was killed during anti-ISIS attacks from Kurdish forces in Northern Syria last week, reports the National Post. Citing unnamed online reports, the Postreported Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud was a Somali-Canadian and former St. Thomas More Secondary School (STMSS) student from the West Mountain in Hamilton, and that he "disappeared" two months ago, phoning home to say that he joined his "brothers" in Syria.
STMSS principal Susanna Fortino-Bozzo confirmed Mohamud had attended the school and called him a "vibrant" student when he was there. She said he was "sociable" and "really well-liked," although he did not graduate, dropping out in Grade 11.
The unnamed reports say he died fighting for Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS). He would be Canada's first reported jihadist killed since anti-ISIS military action, led by air strikes by U.S. forces last week, have amped up.
The Post report says the man, also known as "Mo3," lived with his mother, Asha, in Hamilton while his father lives in Minneapolis. It's believed that during a visit with his father in July, he left for the mosque but never returned home.
Fortino-Bozzo said she couldn't share details of his file due to privacy issues.
"Ultimately, our prayers are with everyone impacted by this tragic death," though she quickly pointed out it may not be true that Mohamud is in fact dead. "His family will be in our prayers."
Reports of his death remain unconfirmed, and foreign affairs is deferring the matter to the Department of Public Safety, which said they "don't comment on operational matters of national security."
There's also a question as to where the young man may have been radicalized — in Hamilton, Mosque representatives from the Mountain don't recognized Mohamud. Some members of the downtown mosque, which has 3,000 members from Somalia, Ethiopia and Bangladesh, among others nations, did not recognize a picture of Mohamud.
The picture was originally circulated on a pair of pro-Shabab websites which didn't name Mohamud, but said the person in the photo was killed. A Sept. 15 Voice of America report claims to have spoken with the unnamed father of Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud in Minneapolis, where his father lived, who said he was "shocked" to learn his son left mid-July.
"My son was a student, he suddenly changed," the man told reporter Harun Maruf. "He used to pray but he increased it to 24 hours of prayers, and he was rarely away from mosques. He arranged his travel without my knowledge, and then he ended up in Syria. All of us [in the family] are very saddened. We did not expect he would do this.”
Whether Mohamud was radicalized in Hamilton or Minneapolis, and if he left for Syria and has died fighting for the Islamic State, is still in question. However, Jason Tamming, press secretary for Steven Blaney, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, notes that 130 Canadians have left to fight for ISIS.
"This is a serious problem, and demands a strong response," Tanning said Wednesday.