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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |
| European Killed Fighting IS in Syria | |
| 2015-03-04 | |
| [AnNahar] A foreign fighter believed to be either British or Greek has been killed in Syria while battling the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group alongside Kurdish militia, a monitor said Tuesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the man died early Tuesday from wounds suffered in a battle with jihadists the day before in the northeastern province of Hasakeh. Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP the fighter was "a European citizen who had been living in Britannia, but it is not clear whether he was British or Greek." He had been fighting with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), a local militia, in an area southwest of the town of Tal Hamis, which Kurdish fighters seized from IS last week. No further details about the man's identity were immediately available. He was the second Westerner believed to have died fighting with the Kurds against IS, after an Australian was reported killed in the same area last week. Dozens of Westerners are believed to have joined the ranks of the YPG in Syria and other militia battling IS, including Assyrian Christian forces in Iraq.
A former Royal Marine has become the first British fighter to be killed battling with Kurdish forces against Islamic State jihadists in Syria, the BBC reported on Tuesday. The BBC named the dead man as former marine Konstandinos Erik Scurfield from Yorkshire in northern England. Reports in the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail said he was 25 years old. The BBC reported that a British pro-Kurdish activist had informed Scurfield's family of his death and that the YPG had asked if he could be buried in Syria "as a martyr". Britain's Foreign Office said it was difficult to confirm such reports. "We are aware of reports of the death of a British national in Syria," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "As we do not have any representation in Syria, it is extremely difficult to get any confirmation of deaths or injuries and our options for supporting British nationals there are extremely limited." | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |