Doctor from Israel joined ranks of Islamic State, hospital confirms

Othman Abdal-Kian, an Israeli Beduin served residency at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon before deciding to join terrorist organization; reports he was killed in fighting.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Othman Abdal-Kian (photo credit: BARZILAI HOSPITAL)
Othman Abdal-Kian
(photo credit: BARZILAI HOSPITAL)
Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon confirmed Sunday that a doctor who had worked as a resident at the hospital had joined the ranks of the Islamic State.
Arab media reported that a Beduin doctor from Israel had been killed while fighting with the terrorist group.
According to the statement released by Barzilai, Othman Abdal-Kian finished his medical degree in Jordan and began doing his residency at the hospital in Ashkelon in February after passing tests qualifying him to temporarily practice medicine in Israel.
He chose to do an elective month at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba which he was supposed to have started in May.
Abdal-Kian failed to show up at the hospital on the prescribed date and all contact with him was lost.
Security authorities questioned the hospital administration at Barzilai about Abdal-Kian's tenure at the facility, informing them that he had foregone his medical career to join Islamic State forces.
Authorities believe that a small number of Israeli-Arabs have joined the ranks of the organization which has taken over large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria through the use of brutal terror tactics.
An Israeli Arab from the Galilee who traveled to Syria to fight in the ranks of the Islamic State was killed in western Iraq earlier this month.
Ahmed Habashi, 23, who hailed from the village of Iksal, just south of Nazareth, was killed in fighting between Islamic State terrorists and their enemies in the strategically vital Al-Anbar province in western Iraq.
Three more Israeli Arab youths are suspected of defecting to Syria in order to enlist in the cause of the extremist jihadist organization.
Israeli authorities received a report last week from a man from the Galilee town of Yafia who traveled with three of his friends to Turkey for holiday.
According to the man, the other three abandoned him and headed for the Turkish border with Syria. Since their departure, he has not been able to get in contact with them.