US militant fighting for ISL killed in Syria

A US man suspected of fighting as a member of the ISIL terrorist group has been killed in Syria, an American official says.

« We were aware of US Citizen Douglas McAuthur McCain’s presence in Syria and can confirm his death, » US National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement issued on Tuesday, Press TV reported.

McCain, 33, died in a fight between rival extremist groups in the suburbs of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group.

He was killed while battling al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda-linked organization.

Ken McCain, the man’s uncle, said the US State Department told them on Monday about the death of his nephew.

Hayden also said that the US will prevent anyone from going to other countries in order to become a terrorist.

« We continue to use every tool we possess to disrupt and dissuade individuals from traveling abroad for violent…and to track and engage those who return, » Hayden said.

Previously, a Florida 22-year-old man carried out a suicide bombing in Syria’s Idlib province in May. Also in July, a Denver woman was arrested on suspicion of trying to fly to Syria to support terrorists. In addition, two men were arrested in Texas on similar charges in June.

The United States is planning to send spy planes into Syria to track ISIL militants who have captured large swaths of territory in neighboring Iraq.

The Obama administration has elevated ISIL as “enemy number one” for the United States after the terrorist group beheaded an American journalist James Foley in Syria.

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