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Jan 2017: Kurds announce death of Canadian fighting ISIS

The Bread Guy

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This from Kurdish media:
A Canadian volunteer with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), Nazzareno Antonio Tassone, was killed in operation to retake the city of Raqqa from the Islamic State (IS) group, the YPG said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Canadian YPG volunteer Nazzareno Antonio Tassone lost his life during clashes against IS [Islamic State] terrorists in the Raqqa campaign,” an English translation of the statement said. Tassone left Edmonton for Syria in June, according to reports.

The YPG is one component of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces currently fighting to retake the city of Raqqa from the Daesh terror group.

The statement announced also the death of a United Kingdom citizen, Ryan Lock, in the same operation.

Both men were part of the operation to recapture Raqqa from the Islamic State since it launched in November and were killed near the city on December 21, the YPG said.

(...)

Tassone, who was born in Ottawa, is the second Canadian killed fighting with the YPG. John Gallagher, a former Canadian soldier, was killed by an IS suicide bomber in November 2015 ...
More via the Windsor Star here:
... 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 ...
More from CBC.ca here.

Photo attached (source)

R.I.P.  :salute:

- will merge into this thread once we get a bit more coverage -
 

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Still no new word on ISIS holding the bodies ....

And this from the official YPG page:
Canadian and British YPG Member were Martyrdom

    Jan 03/2017 | Fallen Martyrs

Canadian and British volunteers with the People's Protection Units (YPG) Nazzareno Antonio Tassone and Ryan Lock, were martyrdom in operation to retake the city of Raqqa from the Daesh terror group .Both comrade were part of the operation to recapture Raqqa from the Islamic State since it launched in November and were martyrdom near the city on December 21 /2016 . We as a YPG and people of Rojava extend our deepest sympathies to there family and friends ,also to the people of Canada and Britain, Remembering there wonderful and gentle soul will forever remain in our hearts. May they rest in peace!

The YPG is one component of the Syrian Democratic Forces currently fighting to retake the city of Raqqa from the Daesh terror group.

YPG Media Center | Jan 03/2017

1483451356-AGIR_ARARAT_AGIR_.jpg


Name/last name: Agir Ararat
Legal Name: Nazzareno Antonio Tassone
Mother: Tina
Father: Mark
Place of Birth: New Market-Ontario-Canada
Place of Martyrdom : Reqa. Caber Xerbî 21.12.2016

1483451384-BERXWEDAN_GVARA_.jpg


Name/last name: Berxwedan Gîvara
Legal Name: Ryan Lock
Mother: Cathrin
Father: John
Place of Birth: Chichester. UK
Place of Martyrdom : Reqa. Caber Xerbî 21.12.2016
 
How nice of them to put their birthplace as well as mom and dad's names  ::)
 
The latest:  the Kurds have recovered the body of the Brit & sent him home, and are still trying to negotiate for the body of the Canadian ...
The mother of a Canadian man killed fighting Islamic State militants in northern Syria is questioning why her son’s body still hasn’t been recovered when the remains of a British fighter who died on the same day were on the way to the United Kingdom.

Nazzareno Tassone, 24, was killed on Dec. 21 in the city of Raqqa, while fighting alongside the Kurdish People’s Defense Units, a U.S.-backed group also known as the YPG.

His family in Niagara Falls, Ont., only learned of his death in early January, when they received a letter from the YPG, which also said that his body had been seized by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known as ISIS or ISIL.

“I just want him home. I need him home,” Tassone’s mother, Tina Martino, said in an emotional interview. “I haven’t been at work. I just sit here, day after day, waiting for the phone to ring and hope.”

( ... )

“I asked why wasn’t Nazz with Ryan and the only thing they could say was that they believe the two boys were not together at the same time,” she said. “(The Toronto Kurdish Community Centre) told me at the beginning I was going to have to wait four to six weeks. And now I don’t understand, he passed away on Dec. 21.”

Martino said she’s calling on the Canadian government, the Kurdish community and anyone who can help in the matter to do what they can to bring her son’s body back to Canada.

“All I want to do is get my word out in asking to get my son home,” she said.

Ihsan Kaya, co-president of the Toronto Kurdish Community Centre, said he’s been in contact with the YPG regularly about Tassone and noted that the Canadian man and his British co-fighter may have been separated but were believed to be fighting in the same area.

“The YPG doesn’t have (Tassone’s) body yet but I hope we get the good news soon,” Kaya said, adding that the region the YPG is fighting in is a volatile one with fast-shifting boundaries.

Global Affairs Canada said officials were in contact with local authorities to gather information and were also providing Tassone’s family with consular assistance.

A spokeswoman noted, however, that “due to the unpredictable security situation” the Canadian government’s ability to provide consular assistance in all parts of Iraq and Syria is severely limited ...
 
More via the National Post ...
Five months after a Canadian was killed by ISIL, his body has been recovered in northern Syria and preparations are underway to get him home, a Kurdish community leader said Monday.

The Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, the rebel force better known as the YPG, retrieved Nazzareno Tassone’s from ISIL, said Ihsan Kaya, president of the Toronto Kurdish Community Centre.

“The YPG, they called me yesterday. They said they had taken the body from ISIS,” Kaya said. He predicted it would take two weeks to return Tassone to Ontario. “They said to me the body’s fine, but I don’t know.”

(...)

On March 29, the Canadian embassy in Erbil, Iraq sent Tassone’s backpack to Martino by courier. Inside, she found notes from two fellow fighters, one of them a former Regina resident, describing how he had died.

“We joined an assault on a village, but were ambushed,” the other, a German, wrote. “During the resulting firefight that lasted for four hours, Agir (Tassone) and Ryan were killed in their rear guard action.” ...
 
The latest from Kurdish media:
Canadian YPG fighter Antonio Cassun* (Agiri Ararat) had lost his life in the Wrath of Euphrates Operation, and the people of Derik bid farewell to his body from the Semalka border to be taken into Bashurê (Southern) Kurdistan. Antonio Cassun’s (Agiri Ararat) body will be transported back to Canada to be buried there.

YPG fighter Agiri Ararat’s body was taken from the Derik Hospital with chants by the martyrs' mothers and the people. Ararat’s coffin was draped with the YPG flag and roses, and a dove was left on the coffin to represent freedom. Then the body was taken to the Semalka Border Gate between Rojava and Bashurê Kurdistan.

The ceremony for Martyr Agiri Ararat started with a minute’s silence. YPG fighter Baran Amed spoke in the ceremony in the name of the Internationalist fighters. Amed offered his condolences to Martyr Agiri’s family and said his comrades will follow in his footsteps.

Amed said Martyr Agiri Ararat was impressed by the Kobanê resistance and the YPG and YPJ fighters and turned to face the war zones, to join the YPG and fight against the gangs for the freedom of peoples.

After the speeches, Canadian fighter Agiri Ararat’s martyrdom document was read and handed to his comrades.

Agiri Ararat’s body will be received by the Canadian Consulate in Bashurê Kurdistan and taken to Canada.
* - Not spelled "Nazzareno Tassone", but the photo on the coffin, if not altered, is one officially confirmed by Kurds as that of the dead Canadian.
 

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More photos reportedly from departure ceremonies (source) attached.
 

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This from the Canadian Heroes Foundation ...
We just received a call from the mother that the coroners office has confirmed the identity of her son.

We can now start to make plans for his repatriation to Niagara Falls from Toronto.

He will receive a “Highway of Heroes” repatriation from Toronto to Niagara Falls on Wednesday June 21 2017.

For those that would like to join the repatriation, form up at MacKinnon & Bowes, 2 Meridian Road, Toronto,Ont.

We will leave at 10am sharp.

Route will be  via the QEW to St. Andrews United Church in Niagara Falls at 5645 Morrison Street.

Service will be at 1pm in the church followed by burial ...
 
An update, from someone who says he was there ...
‘We were cut to pieces’: First eyewitness account of how a Canadian died in Syria
By Stewart Bell National Online Journalist, Investigative  Global News

Eight months after a Canadian anti-ISIS fighter and his British comrade were killed in northern Syria, a member of their unit who survived the deadly clash has come forward with the first eyewitness account of what happened.

In an exclusive interview with Global News, Andrew Woodhead said he was with Nazzareno Tassone, a 24-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., and Ryan Lock, 20, when they came under fierce attack from the so-called Islamic State.

Hours later, Tassone and Lock were dead. The Iraqi doctor who examined Tassone’s body said he had been tortured with cigarette burns. A U.K. coroner concluded that Lock shot himself to avoid being captured by ISIS.

But Woodhead, 44, a Regina truck driver who recently returned to Canada after fighting in Syria, where he was injured in a landmine explosion, said almost nothing that has been said about their deaths was true.

Formerly in the British Army, Woodhead said he was upset with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, which he said did not provide proper training or use basic fighting tactics ...
More @ link
 
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