(Watch the Vice News interview with Farah Shirdon in its entirety below this story. Mobile users, click here.)

Once thought killed in combat, a Calgarian who’s joined the Islamic State terrorist group is actually alive, said a close ex-friend who viewed a recent video taken of him.

Nathaniel Little, who grew up with Farah Mohamed Shirdon, said an interview with Shirdon done by VICE News on Tuesday confirms he didn’t die fighting in Iraq last month.

“It definitely was him,” said Little.

“He was always a very smart guy, so it doesn’t surprise me he’s still alive.”

In August, social media traffic indicated Shirdon, the son of prominent Somali ex-pats living in Calgary, was killed in action.

In the VICE News interview, he’s wearing a black hood and is seated with a bearded young man cradling an AK-47 assault rifle who he identifies as a German national.

Shirdon claims he was interviewed by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) before heading to the Mideast to join the Islamic State.

“All their intelligence workers are imbeciles,” he said.

He also said the IS has been bolstered by up to 15,000 foreign fighters while thousands more are in the West preparing to attack in those countries.

“We’ll make attacks in New York, God willing,” he said, adding his comrades hold “thousands of western prisoners we’ll have to behead.”

Beheading captives, he said, was simply out of revenge, adding he’d rather “be at home with my family” than fight.

But Shirdon also said the IS won’t stop until it raises its flag over the White House and has enslaved its foes.

Stepped-up aerial bombing won’t work and serves only to motivate his co-horts, he added.

“Whatever regime attacks us, we attack them ... Obama, we will fight you to the end,” he said, addressing the U.S. president.

One-time friend Little said he still finds it hard to believe Shirdon went from a popular student at Henry Wisewood high school to an “ill-minded” extremist.

“We basically grew up together ... I’d ask him what motivates him and if he has any remorse for what he’s put his family through,” said Little.

Shirdon is one of several young Calgary men known to have joined the ranks of the IS or other Islamic guerilla groups to fight in Iraq and Syria and it’s believed several others have as well.

Last April, he was seen in a prominent video burning his Canadian passport among other jihadis and threatening the U.S. and Canada.

bill.kaufmann@sunmedia.ca

On Twitter: @SUNBillKaufmann

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