In his last message from Syria a month ago, Damian Clairmont joked about the Canadian winter, saying it wasn’t so frigid where he was. “The ski masks here usually aren’t for the cold,” he told the National Post.
Since then, Mr. Clairmont has not responded to questions and a statement posted on Twitter this week likely explains why: the 22-year-old Canadian who left for Syria just over a year ago is dead.
The brief online statement claims that “Abu Talha al-Canadi” was “executed by FSA” [Free Syrian Army] and asks that he be accepted as a martyr. The accompanying photo is Mr. Clairmont’s. A source familiar with the matter said the report appeared to be genuine.
“We are following the situation closely,” Jean-Bruno Villeneuve, a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman, said Wednesday, adding that officials were “aware of reports that Canadians have been killed in Syria.”