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Ex-Marine killed fighting Islamic State in Syria

 

ORLANDO - A former Marine who secretly traveled to Syria earlier this year to battle the Islamic State was killed while fighting for a Kurdish militia, his father said Tuesday.

 

David Taylor Sr. told The Associated Press that his 25-year-old son, David Taylor, told only a high school friend about his plans to join the Kurdish group, and he swore his friend to secrecy. Taylor's father said he didn't even know of his son's plans until after he had arrived in Syria and was training with the group known as YPG.

 

"I got an email and he said, 'Pops, don't worry. I'm with the YPG,'" David Taylor Sr. said in a telephone interview from his home in West Virginia. "He said, 'I'm doing the right thing. It's for their freedom.'"

 

A Kurdish militia group released a video saying Taylor was killed on July 16. The US State Department said in a statement that it was aware of reports of a US citizen being killed while fighting in Syria but offered no further comment. Taylor Sr. said a US consular chief from the Kurdistan Region in Iraq informed him of his son's death.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 07.25.17, 20:02