In his social media posts Valdet Gashi painted a pleasant picture of life with ISIS. Alongside photos of him rowing a boat or eating a banana were status updates extolling his idyllic new existence. The reality seems to have been somewhat different for the 28-year-old who was reportedly killed on June 27th.

Gashi had previously claimed that his job was akin to that of a policeman, patrolling an area close to the Turkish border and searching for smugglers. However on June 21st his upbeat posts came to an abrupt end with a message announcing he would be saying “Bye Bye” to facebook.

A week later Gashi would be dead. Given that ISIS members have in the past inadvertently given away strategic military locations with social media posts it is possible that the group instructed the former Muay Thai fighter to stop updating his facebook page because he was being sent to the front line.

Isis has a sophisticated online strategy which is designed to appeal to potential recruits. Gashi’s status as a Muay Thai champion might have meant he was given a comparatively cushy job to begin with so that he could present a more glamorous picture of the Islamic State lifestyle to his social media friends and followers.

This is all speculation but the date of Gashi’s death was confirmed by his brother according to German news website SRF. He leaves behind a wife, who converted to Islam in order to marry him, and two young children in Thailand while his parents were reportedly distraught by their son’s decision to start a new life in Syria.

Gashi had previously posted on facebook that he was “helping” not “fighting” and was not involved in "hostilities." It’s possible that on June 21st he was thrust further into active combat. ISIS is fighting hard to regain lost territory in Northern Syria with new Western recruits often sent straight to the front line.

Or Gashi could have found himself on the wrong end of an air strike like one of the Kurdish Muay Thai fighters he had been training with at a gym in Switzerland with strong ISIS connections. It’s unlikely we will ever know the full facts surrounding his death but it seems the 28 year didn’t even manage to survive a single year in Syria.

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