Finnish citizen member of the ISIS terrorist group is killed in Syria

A Finn who appeared in an ISIS propaganda video has been killed in Syria, his father says.

A Finnish politician in Somaliland says that his son, who went to Syria to fight with ISIS, has been killed.

Faisal Ali Warabe says that his daughter-in-law said that his son was killed, apparently in an airstrike, on December 29 at the age of 24. Warabe had last heard from his son five days before that, when he said he intended to head back to Finland. He went to Syria in 2013 after serving in the Finnish Defence Forces.

He appeared in an ISIS video the following year, using the name Abu Shuab as-Somali. In the video, he urged other Finns to join ISIS. The video was apparently filmed in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. US-backed forces pushed the militants out of the city in October.

Warabe confirmed that it was his son in the video, and that he and his wife had gone to Syria, where their two children were born.

Born in British Somaliland, Warabe studied in Russia and served as a Somali ministry official before moving to Finland and becoming a Finnish citizen in 1999.

Warabe is now leader of an opposition party in the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, which broke off from Somalia. In November, he ran for president of the region.

The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) says that at least 80 adults have left Finland to take part in the conflict in Syria and Iraq. It estimates that 15-20 of them have been killed.

Source: Yle