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Salman Ashrafi quit his job at Calgary’s Talisman Energy in October 2012 and flew to the Persian Gulf, where he spent his days studying for the GMAT exam. But then in December he left and his family lost touch with him.

They had no idea where he was or what he was doing until a month ago, when the Canadian Security Intelligence Service contacted them. An officer said there was an article on the National Post website they needed to see.

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The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, the ultra-extremists who seized Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, this week, had released photos of Mr. Ashrafi, along with a eulogy saying he had carried out a car bombing north of Baghdad.

How he went from being a middle-class Canadian husband and business analyst who was preparing to return to school for an MBA, to a suicide bomber responsible for the murder of 19 Iraqis is something his family cannot comprehend.

“To be honest, we don’t know what happened to Salman,” a relative said in an email exchange. He asked not to be identified because he did not want to be associated with Mr. Ashrafi’s suspected involvement in terrorism.