US citizen killed fighting beside Islamic extremists in Syria

Douglas McAuthur McCain, dated from March 23, 2008 released by the Hennepin County, Minn. Sheriff’s Office

The U.S. said an American citizen was killed while fighting alongside Islamic extremists in Syria, highlighting concerns that foreign combatants involved in the conflict pose an increasing global threat.
Douglas McAuthur McCain, 33, who was raised in Minnesota, died last weekend while fighting with the Islamic State group that seeks to establish a strict Islamic caliphate spanning the Muslim world. NBC News reported his death earlier, and the White House National Security Council confirmed it yesterday.
“We were aware of U.S. Citizen Douglas McAuthur McCain’s presence in Syria and can confirm his death,” Caitlin Hayden, a National Security Council spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement. “We continue to use every tool we possess to disrupt and dissuade individuals from traveling abroad for violent jihad and to track and engage those who return.”
U.S. and European officials have reported a surge in their citizens traveling to fight in Syria. U.S. officials estimate that more than 7,000 foreign fighters, including hundreds of Europeans and dozens of American, have gone there seeking to join IS or other groups.
The confirmation of a U.S. casualty fighting for Islamic extremists may escalate the conflict for which President Barack Obama authorized surveillance flights over Syria. The flights could be a precursor for air strikes similar to those the U.S. is waging against Islamic State fighters in Iraq.
“We have to use our power wisely,” Obama said Tuesday in remarks to the American Legion, the nation’s largest veterans service organization, in Charlotte, North Carolina. “History teaches about the dangers of overreaching.”
Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN that McCain was one of “several dozens” of Americans fighting in Syria and Iraq.
At least 100 Americans have gone to Syria to join Islamic extremist groups such as the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State, Republican Representative Peter King of New York, chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security subcommittee on counter terrorism, said at a congressional hearing last month. Bloomberg

Angela Greiling Keane