National Post (National Edition)
‘More than a bit scared’: Canadian killed in Iraq
TORONTO • Nazzareno Tassone messaged a friend last April to ask a “completely theoretical” question. He wanted to know if his friend, a former reservist, knew how Canadians joined the fight against ISIL.
A month later, Tassone again wrote the friend, Mike Webster, and announced he had spoken with a recruiter from the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria and he was “starting the process to try and get over there.”
In dozens of messages, photos and videos he sent to Webster over the months that followed, Tassone, a former railworker, documented his time as an international anti-ISIL volunteer fighter.
Obtained by the National Post, they offer the clearest look yet of Tassone’s motives and his ups and downs as he advanced towards the ISIL capital of Raqqah with Kurdish forces until his death on Dec. 21.
“More than a bit scared that’s for sure,” he wrote as he prepared to leave Edmonton, where he said he was “having bad money problems” and was selling his Lee Enfield rifle because he needed the cash.
But he felt it was something he had to do. “If people don’t do something then those pigs are gonna run free and it’s just a matter of time till something really really bad happens,” he wrote.
On May 19, he wrote that he was “officially cleared to go by the YPG” and would be in Iraq on June 30.
He arrived in Istanbul and flew to Iraq without telling his family because “they would have a heart attack.”
He sent Webster his first message from Syria on July 11, saying it was “bloody. Extremely.” He said he had a Kalashnikov rifle and needed body armour but that “funds are just sketchy right now. We don’t get paid cause that would be illegal.”
Turkish jets had attacked his group in the mountains, he wrote. “They hit us for 4 hours.” He ended the exchange suddenly, then returned online that night to explain. “Sorry about that. ISIS decided to make sure we were awake.”
Two days later, on July 13, Tassone told Webster he had “lost a friend last night. Just after I got off guard. Suicide bomber from what I was told. He was (a) good guy. Not sure what to feel. Just numb.”
He said he was in Manjib and that taking the city from ISIL would be a “turning point” in the war. “Seen a lot of sh—t here already. But what I’ve seen has made me truly realize … we have to win,” he wrote.
In an update on July 30, he said the YPG had lost an American and a British fighter over the past two weeks. ISIL had blown up a fuel truck next to a YPG base. “It’s betting right f**ked up.”
But he said ISIL was losing ground. He spoke about coming home for “steak burger beer.” He noted that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had “called a few people I know asking what I was doing.”
The YPG captured Manbij in mid-August and on Sept. 17 Nassone wrote that he was “back from the front for a bit.” He said the YPG was within 45 kilometres of Raqqah and that he had been part of the push.
“Hoping to get a new weapon. Looks like we might be going on another big offensive,” he wrote on Oct. 1. He said he still had his AK rifle but mostly used a 1939 bolt action rifle he had named Babushka.
Tassone said he planned to stay in Syria until March. “Then go home or somewhere in the world for a week and then go back to the fight,” he wrote. “I don’t want to leave until we beat these goat f**kers and then I will see from there.”
He was becoming increasingly concerned about Turkey, which was fighting the YPG because of its affiliation with the separatist PKK, which wants a Kurdish homeland. He said Turkey was working with ISIL.
He was worried that Turkish forces would attack his unit, forcing him to fight back against a NATO member. He thought that might get him imprisoned upon his return to Canada. “It’s a predicament,” he wrote.
In late November a Turkish airstrike killed two of Tassone’s friends, an American and a German. Tassone was himself wounded by an ISIL mine. “Fractured my toe and the guy in front of me is dead,” he wrote on Dec. 6.
“Leaving in 2 days for Raqqah so probably be gone for another 2 months,” he added. He was “worried about this one my friend. It’s going … bad.” He said he was now an RPG gunner. He still had no armour plates for his combat vest, although Webster was trying to send him money to buy one.
“Shall do my best to stay in one piece,” Tassone wrote.
Two weeks later, the ISIL propaganda wing Amaq posted photos of two Western fighters it said had been killed, along with several Kurds, in a village West of Raqqah. Fellow fighters thought one of the dead in the photos was Tassone. The other was a British volunteer, Ryan Lock.
The photos of the aftermath show a low wall on a flat plain. ISIL ambushed the position at night. The YPG announced Tuesday that Tassone had died Dec. 21. His family is working to return his body to Canada. A memorial was to be held Monday in Ottawa.