Two men in video say they’re from L.A. and ‘gangbanging’ in Syria
In an expletive-laced online video, two men say they are Los Angeles gang members who are “gangbanging” in Syria and fighting the “enemigos” in the bloody three-year conflict.
The men identify themselves as “Wino” from the Westside Armenian Power gang and “Creeper” from the Sun Valley GW-13 gang, which has links to the Mexican mafia.
Dressed in camouflage and ammunition vests and holding Kalashnikov rifles in an unknown location, the pair appear more interested in theatrics than ideology.
They fire their weapons in the general direction of the “enemigos” without aiming through the scope or explaining who the “enemigos” are. There is no return fire. They give shout-outs to friends around Los Angeles including Mr. Criminal, a rapper with online videos including one titled “Silver Lake Riders.”
Much of the dialogue during the brief YouTube video involves some sequence of the words: homie, Syria, gangbang and a range of expletives.
On his Facebook profile Wino says he is working with the Syrian army alongside the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, although there is no way to independently verify his claim.
The Glendale Police Department says that Wino is Nersis Kilajian, 31, a Syrian national who was living in the U.S. before being deported in 2012 for a felony offense elsewhere. He had several run-ins with Glendale police, authorities say, for offenses including driving under the influence and receiving stolen property. Various spellings of his name can be found on his criminal record.
Little is known about Creeper, though he appears in several photos on Wino’s Facebook profile that say he has been in Syria. In one online comment, Wino wrote that Creeper had also been deported.
U.S. intelligence officials have said that at least 50 Americans have joined extremist rebel groups fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad. But this could be the first time that people with links to the U.S. say they are fighting on the government’s side.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a grouping of local and federal agencies, “is aware of the video and investigating the content to determine any potential threat to Americans or U.S. interests.”
Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Michael Downing said the department’s counter-terrorism operation had spotted the video.
The video has garnered attention because of the incongruous pairing of L.A. gang signs and shout-outs with the Syrian conflict, which has left more than 130,000 dead and caused millions to flee their homes.
Wino is said to be a member of the Armenian Christian community and originally from Aleppo, once Syria’s vibrant commercial hub. Christians accounted for about 10% of Syria’s population before the uprising began in 2011 and have mostly remained uninvolved in the fighting.
But there have been increasing attacks and threats from some Islamist extremist groups, including desecration of churches and seizure of nuns as hostages.
On his Facebook profile, Wino has used an application to check in from two locations in government-held Aleppo.
On the most recent photo he uploaded, a friend commented: “the turkish sluaghterer. proud to have you protect our people dawg, its people like you gonna be written about in our history books to come. modern day fedayi homies.”
Fedayi were Armenian militias.
“I do anythink to portect my ppl,” Wino commented back. “Only my ppl all Armenians and ready to die for my ppl.”
Special correspondent Nabih Bulos in Boston contributed to this report.
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