| CNN | - |
(CNN)
-- An American man died last weekend in Syria while fighting for ISIS,
the latest evidence of the reach of a terror group that's become
increasingly powerful and feared in the eyes of Americans.
Death of American fighting for ISIS spurs question: Are there others?
updated 8:55 PM EDT, Tue August 26, 2014
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Spokesman: Douglas McCain at one point attended San Diego City College
- McCain converted to Islam years ago; family saw Facebook posts sympathetic to ISIS
- Group says McCain died fighting for ISIS against a rival extremist group in Aleppo
- U.S. official: U.S. using "every tool" to track others who similarly fight, and may return
Douglas McArthur McCain,
33, died in a battle between rival extremist groups in the suburbs of
Aleppo, Syria's once-bustling commercial capital and largest city,
according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based
group that monitors the conflict.
The man's uncle, Ken
McCain, said that his nephew had gone to fight as a jihadi and that the
U.S. State Department told the family Monday about the death.
Like U.S. officials, the
group characterized McCain as an ISIS fighter and said he was killed
battling al-Nusra Front, an al Qaeda-linked organization that the U.S.
government has blacklisted as a foreign terror organization.
Other Americans already within ISIS ranks
Westerners with ISIS a 'growing threat'
Kean: "Appalled" at lack of ISIS knowledge
McCain was not the first
American to fight alongside militants in Syria. Attorney General Eric
Holder estimated this summer that there are 7,000 foreign fighters in
the war-ravaged Middle Eastern nation. "Dozens of
Americans, perhaps up to 100," are among those who have tried to join
various militant groups there, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf
told CNN.
Nor was McCain the first
of these American militants to die in Syria. Islamists touted the role
of a 22-year-old man -- identified by the State Department's Jen Psaki
as Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, who grew up and went to school in Florida
-- in a northern Syria suicide bombing conducted in coordination with
al-Nusra Front.
Yet McCain's death takes
on added significance, perhaps urgency, given that he's believed to be
the first American killed while fighting with ISIS.
Until now, Washington
largely has limited its involvement in Syria to diplomatic efforts and
supporting "moderate opposition," as described by Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman Martin Dempsey and others, that is fighting to unseat Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad.
That's the same goal as ISIS, which aims to rule a caliphate, known as the Islamic State, spanning Iraq and Syria.
Even so, the United
States initiated airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq this month and signaled
that it might next go after the group inside Syria.
The United States has
started gathering intelligence on the locations of ISIS leadership and
troops in Syria, two U.S. officials told CNN. President Barack Obama has
OK'd reconnaissance flights over the war-ravaged nation, according to a
U.S. official.
Who was Douglas McCain?
Little was immediately known publicly about McCain's life, beyond how it ended.
He attended San Diego
City College, though its spokesman Jack Beresford would not say when
McCain attended, for how long or for what purpose.
Several years ago,
according to his uncle, McCain converted from Christianity to Islam --
the first step on his journey to Syria.
The family wasn't
alarmed by his conversion, but his Facebook posts sympathetic to ISIS
got their attention. When they last heard from him several months ago,
McCain said he was traveling to Turkey, according to his uncle.
Is there support for ISIS in London?
Dealing with ISIS and Assad in Syria
CNN speaks to British jihadi fighter
The fact that McCain
became a jihadi left his family "devastated" and "just as surprised as
the country," said Ken McCain, who lives in Minnesota.
He described the nephew
he knew as "a good person, loved his family, loved his mother, loved his
faith" -- the latter being a reference to the Christianity he practiced
before his conversion.
U.S. counterterrorism
investigators had been looking into McCain's activities for some time
before his death, one U.S. official said.
He was on a list of
Americans who are believed to have joined militant groups and who would
be stopped and subjected to additional scrutiny if he traveled,
according to the official.
Retired U.S. Army Brig.
Gen. Mark Kimmitt, who had top roles in the State and Defense
Departments in President George W. Bush's administration, said he
expects more stories like McCain's.
"The ability to travel
into these countries demonstrates how porous the borders are," Kimmitt
said. "I think we need to understand that there's going to be more of
this rather than less of this."
Fears over Westerners in terror groups
Syria's civil war has
been brewing for three years. In the absence of a unified rebel front,
many groups -- some moderate, some more secular, some extremist -- have
tried to fill the void.
Much of the time, they've battled al-Assad's forces, though there has also been infighting among them.
Among these rebel
groups, one has emerged recently in the public's consciousness: ISIS.
That's as much due to its brazenness and viciousness as to its success.
The general command for al Qaeda -- itself responsible for the September
11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- went so far as to disown ISIS and blame it for "the enormity of the disaster that afflicted the Jihad in Syria."
Yet the group has thrived.
It has taken more and
more territory in Iraq and Syria, sometimes overrunning government
forces while terrorizing civilians. ISIS's stature grew even more
internationally with the recent beheading of American journalist James Foley, a killing it videotaped and then put online.
"They are beyond just a
terrorist group," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said last week. "They
marry ideology, a sophistication of strategic and tactical military
prowess.
"This is beyond anything we have seen, and we must prepare for everything."
These preparations
includes tracking Westerners like McCain. In addition to whatever they
might do against allies and civilians in the Middle East, U.S. officials
worry that they could bring their groups' brand of terror back home.
Assistant Attorney
General John Carlin said last month that getting intelligence on such
Americans who fight in Syria and making sure they don't bring that right
back home is "a top priority."
"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,"
National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden added Tuesday, on
the heels of McCain's death.
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