A Canadian man has been killed by a suicide bomber during fighting against Islamic State militants in north-eastern Syria, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The London-based independent group, which monitors casualties in the conflict, said in a press release the Canadian man was fighting alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an anti-ISIS alliance of Kurdish, Arab, Turkmen and Syriac Christian militias.
The report claims the Canadian volunteer was killed when an ISIS fighter detonated an explosive belt on a farm east of al-Hasakah City. The 32-year-old Windsor-born man was part of a unit that was fighting to take back a nearby village from ISIS at the time of the blast.
The man’s identity has not been released until his relatives in Canada are informed.
A Canadian man has been killed in north-eastern Syria near the city of Hasakah, marked by the red pin.
Kurdish militia, known as the People’s Defense Units (YPG), says they are now in possession of the man’s belongings and passport. But attempts to reach the YPG spokespeople on Wednesday for more information were unsuccessful.
Other Canadians are known to be fighting in the area, but there are no reports of other Canadian casualties.
Islamic State militants and various anti-ISIS militia in this multi-ethnic part of Syria, close to the border with Turkey and Iraq, have been involved in heavy fighting for several months.
In mid-October, 2015, the Kurdish, Arab, Syriac Christian and Turkmen militia formed a unified command and declared a campaign to “liberate” the countryside from ISIS control.
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