Canadian man fi ghting against regime ‘ executed’ by other rebels: report
The Department of Foreign Affairs is “following closely” a report that a 22- year- old Canadian man who converted to Islam has been executed while fighting in Syria, the National Post reports.
A statement posted on Twitter this week said “Abu Talha al- Canadi”, who is believed to be former Calgary resident Damian Clairmont, was killed by the Free Syrian Army during fighting in Aleppo between rebel groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Post reported that the tweet included a photo of Clairmont and asked that he be accepted as a martyr.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, speaking in Washington, said officials were aware of the reports of the man’s death, but suggested he may be just one among many Canadians fighting with Islamic extremists overseas.
“I haven’t got specific facts, ( but) it won’t come as a surprise to us that there is probably more than one Canadian that is fighting with the opposition,” Baird said.
Clairmont, now known as Mustafa al- Gharib, was a troubled high school dropout who had tried to kill himself before converting to Islam and heading to Syria in late 2012, according to the Post report. He was being investigated by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service ( CSIS) as a member of
They ( al- Qaida types) do not steal or rape or sell drugs or murder or kidnap for ransom.
DAMIAN CLAIRMONT
CANADIAN FIGHTER IN SYRIA
an extremist group, according to his mother.
He was interviewed by the Post over the last six months. In his last message a month ago, Clairmont joked about the warmer climate in Syria. “The ski masks here usually aren’t for the cold,” he told the newspaper.
On Dec. 4, he told the Post that infighting in Syria resulted when groups tried to remove others who killed, raped and stole, or collaborated with the Assad’s regime.
“As for those al- Qaida- types, they are clearly dominant everywhere you go but they do not steal or rape or sell drugs or murder or kidnap for ransom.”
His mother told the Post that Clairmont was born into an Acadian, French- Canadian Catholic family in Nova Scotia and moved to Calgary when he was six or seven with his parents, who later split up.
He told his mother he was in Syria because women and children were being tortured and he wanted to do something productive, and spoke wistfully of the afterlife.
“He’s definitely with some kind of jihadist group,” said the mother, who was angry that Canadian officials did not tell her earlier her son was associating with extremists .
In phone calls and Facebook chats from Syria, Clairmont said he had converted to Islam because he wanted to challenge Western assumptions .
“The benefit for myself in terms of the worldly life is most certainly back in Canada where I could see my family, indulge in fornication and infidelity legally and limitlessly and stagger around poisoned on intoxicants and then lie to myself and the world about ‘ Freedom’ and how fantastic it is,” he wrote.