A former U.S. Marine and Afghanistan War veteran is in Iraq fighting Islamic State soldiers and hunting for virtual Pokémon characters at the same time.
Louis Park, who is fighting in Northern Iraq alongside a Christian militia, said on Facebook that he captured his first Pokémon while playing the new popular mobile game Pokémon Go on Friday.
“Just caught my first pokemon on the Mosul front line by teleskuf. Daesh [ISIS] come challenge me to a pokemon battle,” he wrote on Facebook Friday, two days after the game was released.
“Mortars are for p———,” Park added.
In a picture he posted, Squirtle, one of the game’s creatures, is seen in the desert. A Poké Ball rests on his gun.
A day prior he had posted on Facebook: “Pokemon go is out…I wonder if I can challenge Daesh to a pokemon battle.”
The game was created by Niantic and the Pokémon company, and it uses the GPS and cameras on players’ phones to track where they go and hunt for Pokémon characters. Pokémon originally launched in the United States in 1998 and became one of the most successful video game franchises.
According to data from SimilarWeb, Pokémon Go has already been installed on more Android phones than Tinder in the U.S., and is being used more than other apps like Whatsapp, Instagram, Snapchat and Messenger.
Pokémon Go is also expected to soon have more daily active users than Twitter.
