Revelations of Canada's Latest Known ISIL Prize

"I was captured by them [Kurdish forces] after attacking one of their points and entering into a gun battle with them."
"After they called me to surrender, I surrendered myself."
"The soldiers [Islamic state fighters] are not fighting open so much, but rather are restricting themselves to small groups and are resorting to tunnels and trenches and so on."
Mohammad Abdullah Mohammad, Islamic State terrorist, former Toronto resident

A man identifying himself as Mohammad Abdullah Mohammad, a Canadian from Toronto, was captured during a firefight with the Syrian Democratic Forces. Screen grab

"From the first time I heard the Flames of War videos, the dude's voice sounded distinctly Canadian, and distinctly like people I grew up with in Toronto."
"He [childhood friend of the terrorist] asked if I could send him the full video. After watching the video, he said it is the same person who grew up with him and also mentioned that he was the voice behind much of the English language ISIS releases since around 2014. If you compare the voice of that to Flames of War, I'd say it's pretty identical."
"It just goes to show that many Canadians may not have been strictly fighters but important players in the ISIS media structure, and that some Canadian fighters were considered important enough to travel with ISIS leadership to the final pockets of control in Syria."
Amarnath Amarasingam, senior Research Fellow, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, University of Waterloo

"It is very difficult work when you're talking about collecting evidence in a foreign theatre of war."
"That said, even travelling abroad for terrorist purposes is illegal."
Scott Bardsley, spokesman, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Canada

A firefight last Sunday between the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of militias led by the Kurdish YPG and supported by the U.S. -- and Islamic State fighters netted the capture of a number of ISIL members. Among them a man purporting to be from Toronto. His Kurdish interrogator questioned him in Arabic, and the man who identified himself as Mohammad Abdullah Mohammad responded in perfect Arabic in a short video released to the public by the YPG.

That short video was followed by a much longer one of 12 minutes with Mohammad Abdullah Mohammad speaking perfect English with an obvious Canadian accent, where he described his time living among and fighting with the Islamic State. He spoke of leaving Canada in 2013 to fight with Islamic State. He was present for its surprise and swift expansion into both Syria and Iraq as it acquired the territory it called the Islamic State Caliphate.

Thousands of Islamic State fighters yet remain in the territory still held in eastern Syria by the Islamic State, a much-diminished territory but still one they dominate as can be evidenced by their latest attack in Syria targeting U.S. troops, and killing four American along with sixteen other people in Manbij yesterday. Mohammad spoke of increasing airstrikes and drone attacks taking their toll on his enclave in eastern Syria.

The release of the video inspired some feverish examination and comparison to video and audio recordings distributed by ISIL in the years they were establishing their vast territorial caliphate. There is a stark similarity between this YPG prisoner's voice and the voice of the narrator who had been the ISIL propagandist and even physical resemblance has been established to link this man with the notorious Islamic State narrator of the 51-minute-long propaganda video that horrified the world at the height of Islamic State's infamous onslaught on the geography and their proud display of human depravity.

A scene from ISIL propaganda video Flames of War. There is some belief that the masked narrator is captured Canadian Mohammad Abdullah Mohammad. File

In 2014, the video shows a masked man speaking before a black ISIL flag while behind him men are seen digging a long pit in the background as they are identified as Syrian government soldiers, "digging their own graves", according to the narrator. "The flames of war are only beginning to intensify. The fight has just begun", he continues, waving a gun as he speaks, alternating in his narration from English to Arabic and back again. Cutting to an ISIL firing squad, the armed men including the narrator fire, as the prisoners tumble into the pit, dead.

A year later, an English-language audio recording surfaced to claim another victorious exploit for Islamic State in the November 13, 2015 Bataclan concert hall devastation where well co-ordinated gun and bomb attacks killed 130 people, wounding another 494 others. Once again that audio recording sounded similarly familiar with its narrator's familiar Canadian inflections. Recently, Amarasingam had visited captured Canadian ISIL fighters in a Syrian prison.

In his interviews with them he questioned whether they knew if the Islamic State narrator was Canadian. Among the prisoners one confirmed that a Canadian whose battlefield name was Abu Ridwan al-Kanadi was the narrator. Information since received from that close friend of the captured man confirmed he is indeed the person known as Abu Ridwan. That childhood friend explained he recognized the same man, confirming him to be the voice of ISIL's English-language media.

The very same man who in the first video with the Syrian prisoners who were shot after they dug their own graves, was part of the firing squad who ended those soldiers' lives. The killer's old friend recalled how as children Mohammad was given the nickname Abu Ridwan. All this background information should be viewed as irrefutable evidence of war crimes committed by a Canadian citizen now being held by the YPG in Syria.

Yet as far as a spokesman for the office of Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety is concerned, it is Canada's national security agencies tasked to track down evidence identifying Canadians who have taken part in terrorism to enable Canada to charge and convict them for the commission of crimes abroad. Can Canadians then safely assume that their national security agencies are busy interrogating this Canadian for his distinguished role in aiding the Islamic State to terrorize the world community?

An image grab taken from a video obtained by AFPTV on Wednesday shows US troops gathered at the scene of a suicide attack in the northern Syrian town of Manbij. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Two US soldiers, a defence department civilian official and contractor were killed, US Central Command confirms