WORLD_ British former marine reported killed in Syria

The Japan Times

World British former marine reported killed in Syria

AFP-JIJI
Mar 4, 2015
Article history

LONDON – A former Royal Marine has become the first British fighter to be killed battling with Kurdish forces against Islamic State extremists in Syria, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights earlier told reporters a European citizen had been killed fighting with Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, but that it was not clear whether he was British or Greek.

The BBC named the dead man as former marine Konstandinos Erik Scurfield from Yorkshire in northern England. British newspapers reported that he was 25 years old.

The BBC said 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.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the man died on Tuesday from wounds suffered in a battle with jihadists the previous day in the northeastern province of Hasakeh.

It said he had been fighting in an area southwest of the town of Tal Hamis, which Kurdish fighters seized from the Islamic State group last week.

He is believed to be the second Westerner to have died fighting with Kurdish forces against the Islamic State, after an Australian was reported killed in the same area last week.

Dozens of Westerners are thought to have joined the ranks of the YPG in Syria and other militia battling Islamic State extremists, including Assyrian Christian forces in Iraq.

However, their numbers are dwarfed by the thousands of foreign jihadists who have joined the group since it seized swaths of Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic “caliphate” last year, believed to include more than 500 from Britain alone.

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