Was Hamilton man fighting for ISIS?

(Updated)

The family of a Hamilton man who is reported to have died while fighting with ISIS says they tried everything to stop him from crossing into Syria. If reports of his death are true, 20-year old Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud would be the first Canadian killed in the conflict between ISIS and Kurdish forces.

A spokesperson for the family say while they wait for confirmation of Mohamud’s death, they’re struggling to understand what happened to a charismatic, promising young student to take him down this path.

After returning from his first year at York University, Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud’s family in Hamilton noticed his views of the world were changing. Then two months ago, he went missing for a few days after visiting his father in Minneapolis. The family was able to trace his cell phone and discovered he was in Turkey.

Hussein Hamdani, family friend: “In an attempt to reach out to him when he was in Turkey, he had then mentioned his intention was to then cross the border into Syria and help the resistance against the Assad government.”

Mohamud’s relatives reached out to family friend Hussein Hamdani because he has contacts with CSIS and the RCMP. He says the Canadian authorities acted right away and if Mohamud were still on a plane they would have been able to stop him.

Hussein Hamdani: “But once you’ve landed, the handlers picked him up. There is an underground railroad and at that point it’s too late and he made it over the border.”

Posts online say a Somali-Canadian was killed last week during clashes between ISIS and Kurdish forces. Former classmates have identified this man in an accompanying photo as Mohamud. But the Canadian government has yet to confirm he was killed.

Hussein Hamdani: “His family is trying to understand what happened. I mean he was an extremely young intelligent gregarious young boy had a lot of promise. He had scholarships to university. Great grades. Great personality.”

Patrick Daly, Chair of the Hamilton Wentworth Catholic District School Board: “We’ve been informed by the school community is that he was a good student without incident while he attended in terms of any behavioral matters.”

The Hamilton Wentworth Catholic District School Board confirmed today that a student named Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud attended St. Thomas More from 2008 to 2011. The public board says he was a student at Sir Allan Macnab from 2011 to 2012.

Patrick Daly: “If it’s the same individual, I think the reaction would be as you expect. One of shock and concern for his family.”

Hamdani says he’s been told there are 10-thousand radical websites that try to recruit young people to fight with ISIS — his family thinks he may have picked up on one while he was away at school, joined a chat room and left for Syria on his own.

As of Monday, the RCMP and CSIS reached out to the family to say they still do not have confirmation he was killed in battle or killed at all.