Local jihadist killed in Syrian battle

A 33-year-old U.S. citizen who had lived in Spring Valley and attended San Diego City College died over the weekend as an Islamic militant fighter in Syria, U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday.

Some news organizations said Douglas McAuthur McCain belonged to the jihadist group Islamic State, which is locked in years-long combat with the Syrian government and moderate rebel groups in that country.

Islamic State, which envisions creating an empire based on its ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam, also has captured dozens of cities in northern Iraq in recent months and gained even more international attention this month by beheading American journalist James Foley.

In recent weeks, the top U.S. military officer and others have branded Islamic State as the gravest threat to American security since al-Qaeda hijacked commercial airliners to attack three East Coast sites on Sept. 11, 2001. President Barack Obama has allowed limited airstrikes against the group's soldiers in Iraq for an indefinite time, and this week he officially approved aircraft surveillance of Islamic State activities in Syria.

Two of the news reports about McCain cited unnamed U.S. authorities as saying he was killed during a battle against the U.S.-backed rebel group Free Syrian Army in the northern Syrian city of Marea, near the border with Turkey. They also said he was found with several hundred dollars and a U.S. passport on his body.

Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, verified some details of the case in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon from Washington, D.C.

“We were aware of U.S. citizen Douglas McAuthur McCain’s presence in Syria and can confirm his death," she said. "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."

Facebook photo of Duale ThaslaveofAllah, posted July 2010 — Facebook photo

( / Facebook photo)

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said there's growing worry about Americans going to Iraq or Syria to wage battle for Islamic State -- and the possibility they may come back to the U.S. to do harm.

“We’re concerned about the fact that someone with a Western or a U.S. passport might return home and attempt acts of terrorism,” Psaki said. “And obviously, that’s something that’s been a big topic of discussion with the (United Kingdom) and other countries as well. Our view is we need to continue to assess and monitor closely what their capabilities are.”

The U.S. government didn't know that McCain was heading to Syria until he reached there, and it subsequently put him on a watch list of potential terrorists, according to The New York Times. The list is meant to trigger extra scrutiny if he tried to board any flight headed to the United States.

McCain was one of more than 100 Americans believed to have traveled to Syria in recent years to wage battle on behalf of Islamic groups. Such organizations, particularly Islamic State, are known for using social media, video postings on YouTube and other means to recruit Americans, Europeans and other foreigners.

One challenge for the operators of sites such as Twitter and Facebook is how to monitor content on what are fundamentally open forums, said Rebecca Coates Nee, a media studies professor at San Diego State University.

"It's interesting because some of these social media companies are moving toward some of the ethical standards journalists use," she said. "Obviously, social media is very popular among young adults, and that is the population these groups are going after."

Coates Nee and other experts on religious warfare largely agree that potential recruits are likely be sympathetic to a militant group's cause and susceptible to psychological enticement. For example, Islamic State espouses that competing forms of Islam are untrue to Allah's teachings -- including being too lenient with gender roles and too tolerant of other religions -- while preaching that death as a jihadist will bring eternal glory.

On his Facebook page, McCain said he was born in Illinois and raised in Minnesota. He moved to San Diego County some time after graduating from high school.

Then he attended San Diego City College for awhile; a spokesman there confirmed the enrollment but declined to provide additional details.

McCain also may have been employed at the now-defunct restaurant African Spice on 54th Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard in City Heights.

One woman who works nearby said Tuesday that she remembers seeing McCain hanging out in front of the restaurant about two years ago. He was friends with young members of the family that owned the Somali eatery and might have helped inside, said the woman, who asked that she not be named because Islamic State is a sensitive issue.

"They used to stand outside and smoke cigarettes," she said, adding that the owner has since moved to Minnesota. "He wasn't even very religious. He was just a regular American kid."

McCain reportedly worshiped at Masjid Nur, a mosque located in the center of a black Muslim community in City Heights. Attempts to reach the imam, or leader of the mosque, were unsuccessful Tuesday.

Several people congregating near the mosque Tuesday afternoon said they didn't recognize McCain from his Facebook photograph.

“This is just a big surprise to everybody,” said Mohamed Ali, 23.

McCain's mother and sister, who shared a Spring Valley apartment with him for an unspecified time, weren't home between Tuesday afternoon and evening. A peek through a front window of the dwelling showed a neatly organized place with photos of the household.

A neighbor, Robert Stocking, said McCain had lived there until about a year ago.

McCain's tweets and Facebook postings suggest that he shuttled back and forth between San Diego County and Minnesota. NBC News and The New York Times said government records show that he was arrested or received citations eight times on charges including theft, marijuana possession and driving without a license.

Ken McCain, identified as uncle of the deceased, was quoted in a CNN report saying the younger McCain had traveled overseas to fight as a jihadi and that the State Department notified the family about the death Monday. He also told CNN that the family wasn't alarmed by his conversion from Christianity to Islam, but became devastated upon learning that he was sympathetic to the Islamic State and like-minded organizations.

On Facebook, McCain's friends and family members mourned his death. But they did not mention his connections to any extremist group. None of them could be reached for comment Tuesday.

McCain tweeted that his religious conversion took place in 2004. He began using the name Duale ThaslaveofAllah on Facebook, while he identified himself as Duale Khalid on Twitter and used the handle @iamthetooth.

McCain's Twitter footprint dates to December 2012. In that month, he expressed hate toward white people and made a few references to Allah.

There was a pause in tweeting between January 2013 and this May, when he described his conversion as the best thing that ever happened to him. In another tweet that month, he wrote: "If you want to know the religion of a man, do not look at how much he prays and fasts, rather look at how he treats people."

On Tuesday, a Facebook posting from McCain's sister, Delecia McCain in Spring Valley, read as a memorial tribute: "I really don't understand why and how and I have no words, I never thought this will be the way we say goodbye. You where my oldest brother, my biggest headache, the one I argue with the most, my words when I needed you to be. I can hear you now saying 'lele guess what, I'm awesome' and that big brother you are. This is absolutely unreal to me I love you big brother — feeling numb with Duale ThaslaveofAllah."