... on Dec. 22, an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant propaganda outfit posted photos of the bodies of two Western-looking fighters it said had been killed in western Syria. One of them looked like Tassone.
On Tuesday, the Kurdish YPG militia announced that Tassone had indeed died on Dec. 21, along with a British volunteer fighter, Ryan Lock. Those familiar with the incident said their position had been overrun by ISIL.
The 23-year-old is the second Canadian volunteer fighter to die in Syria, after John Robert Gallagher was killed on Nov. 4, 2015, while fighting with a secretive unit of all-Western fighters called the 223, led by an American veteran.
Originally from Keswick, Ont., Tassone studied at a Catholic high school in Niagara Falls and had wanted to join the Canadian military. On Facebook, he posted excerpts of a novel depicting a future war that saw Canada “in utter devastation.”
He had also reflected on death, writing that, “We have all experienced death. There is that one day in the year when we take a day and remember that person; we laugh, we cry, we have happy moments, we have sad moments.”
On June 24, he posted a photo of himself in what looked like a bar, wearing a Toronto Raptors T-shirt. “Hey all from Turkey,” he wrote. His posts indicated he had travelled from Edmonton to Toronto, Frankfurt and Istanbul.
Two sources told the National Post they later met Tassone in Syria.
“I spoke to him regularly while he was there and I can tell you that he was motivated by a desire to do something about the scourge of ISIS and was inspired by other Canadians who had done so,” Webster said.
He was “basically functioning as a infantryman. He was equipped with an AK type of rifle and MARPAT (Marine pattern) cammo gear. He was involved in the fight for Manbij and spoke of losing several friends to suicide bombers. He expressed great pride in becoming a sniper and, as of when we last spoke, had 20 confirmed kills.”
Exactly what happened on Dec. 21 remains unclear. “As far as I understand it there was a large Daesh (ISIL) attack, he fought, and was killed,” one of Tassone’s acquaintances told the Post. The statement from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, called Tassone and Lock heroes and martyrs.
The ISIL propaganda outfit Amaq reported that two “Western soldiers” had been killed near the village of Ja’bir, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. Photos of the bodies of the so-called “Crusaders” were posted online, with captions claiming they had died “in the ongoing battles” in Western Raqqah province ...
