American man suspected of fighting with Islamic State is killed
August 26, 2014 7:31 PM
American reportedly flighting for ISIL killed in battle
An American man
suspected of fighting alongside Islamic State militants who have seized
large areas of Iraq and Syria to the alarm of the Baghdad government and
its allies in the West has been killed in Syria, a U.S. official said
on Tuesday.
"We were aware
of U.S. Citizen Douglas McAuthur McCain's presence in Syria and can
confirm his death," U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin
Hayden said in a statement.
"We
continue to use every tool we possess to disrupt and dissuade
individuals from traveling abroad for violent jihad and to track and
engage those who return," Hayden said.
A national security
official who asked not to be named told Reuters that the FBI was
investigating McCain's death, and a Stat Department spokeswoman said
officials had been in contact with his family and were providing "all
consular assistance."
Family
members told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that McCain's mother had been
called by a State Department official to report that he had been killed
in Syria over the weekend.
The
newspaper said the family had been concerned with McCain's expressions
of support of Islamic State militants, and the man's uncle, Ken McCain,
told CNN his nephew had converted to Islam from Christianity several
years ago and traveled to the region via Turkey to fight as a jihadi.
That could place him among
the dozens of U.S. citizens that Attorney General Eric Holder said in
July were included in a cohort of roughly 7,000 foreign fighters that
U.S. intelligence agencies estimate to be operating in Syria, out of
roughly 23,000 violent extremists.
Holder
said federal prosecutors had opened fewer than 100 investigations into
American citizens who may have traveled to Syria or Iraq to fight.
NBC
News reported that McCain was born in Illinois and moved with his
family to the Twin Cities area, where he graduated from high school in
the Minneapolis suburb of New Hope in 1999. He later moved to the San
Diego area, where he attended community college.
His
death comes after a 22-year-old man from Florida carried out a suicide
bombing in Syria's Idlib province in May. Later, a Denver woman was
arrested in July on suspicion of trying to fly to Syria to support
insurgents, and two men in Texas were taken into custody on similar
charges in June.
One of the
Texas men was charged with "attempting to provide material support to
terrorists," a law that Holder urged other countries to copy as vital to
counter terrorism efforts.
(Reporting
by Mark Hosenball and Warren Strobel in Washington, Marty Graham in San
Diego, David Bailey in Minneapolis and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles;
Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Eric Walsh and
Sandra Maler)
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