British citizen fighting with Kurds killed in Syria

[webfact]

British citizen fighting with Kurds killed in Syria
BRAM JANSSEN, Associated Press

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — A British citizen fighting alongside Kurdish forces against the Islamic State group has been killed in Syria, a Kurdish commander said Wednesday.

Konstandinos Erik Scurfield was shot dead March 2 in the front-line village of Tel Khuzela, Kurdish commander Redor Khalil told The Associated Press. Another foreign fighter battling with the Kurds, American Jordan Matson, said he is with the body and working on getting the remains back to Britain.

Several foreign fighters have traveled to Syria and neighboring Iraq to fight with Kurdish militias battling the Islamic State group. Matson and four other foreign nationals told AP last month that they arranged to join Kurdish forces through the Facebook page run by the People's Protection Units, or YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish militia fighting in northern Syria.

The Islamic State group, which currently holds territory in a third of Iraq and Syria, has recruited thousands of foreign fighters from Europe and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The British Foreign Office said it is aware of reports that a British national died in Syria.

"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," it said.

At least one other foreign fighter, Australian Ase Johnson, is known to have been killed fighting alongside the Kurds.

Neither the U.S. nor the U.K. have banned citizens from fighting with militias against the Islamic State group, though both consider the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK, a terrorist organization. The PKK, which waged a long and bloody insurgency against Ankara, is believed to have close ties to the YPG and is fighting alongside it in northern Iraq and Syria.

Australians are forbidden by law from fighting with any force outside of the Australian national army. Australia was also one of the first countries to criminalize travel to Syria's al-Raqqa province, where the Islamic State group has established the de facto capital of its self-styled caliphate.
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Associated Press writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-03-04

[Cuchulainn]

He had the courage to go.

RIP

[transam]

Respect............. ...............Guy, you have mine............... .........RIP

[Thorgal]

Did he fight for PKK ?

A known terrorist cell in Kurdistan.

[Scott]

Did he fight for PKK ?

A known terrorist cell in Kurdistan.

From the OP:

People's Protection Units, or YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish militia fighting in northern Syria.

So, know that would not be the PKK.

[JockPieandBeans]

Stand Easy brother your battle is over. RIP.

[Thorgal]

Did he fight for PKK ?

A known terrorist cell in Kurdistan.

From the OP:

People's Protection Units, or YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish militia fighting in northern Syria.

So, know that would not be the PKK.

Check out the chapter of 'Ideology' and euh...'History'....

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Union_Party_(Syria)

PYD has strong ties with PKK.

Even so, they're fighting on the same fronts and they have as ideological leader also Ocalan.

They have been founded secretly in 2003 with remnants of the PKK...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Protection_Units

Edited March 4, 2015 by Thorgal

[BKKBobby]

Did he fight for PKK ?

A known terrorist cell in Kurdistan.

From the OP:

People's Protection Units, or YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish militia fighting in northern Syria.

So, know that would not be the PKK.

Check out the chapter of 'Ideology' and euh...'History'....

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Union_Party_(Syria)

PYD has strong ties with PKK.

Even so, they're fighting on the same fronts and they have as ideological leader also Ocalan.

They have been founded secretly in 2003 with remnants of the PKK...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Protection_Units

I remember the city centre of the capital of my home country full of kurds 15 years ago shouting "ocalan koordistan".

PKK was considered a terrorist group when I grew up. They were one of the suspects in a horrible crime that shocked our whole nation (my home country) in the 80s. Had totally forgotten about them.

Edited March 4, 2015 by BKKBobby

[Mosha]

If they were fighting Israel they would be the good guys, but because they want an homeland in muslim lands they are terrorists. The worlds largest ethnic group without a nation to call their own.

[Thorgal]

If they were fighting Israel they would be the good guys, but because they want an homeland in muslim lands they are terrorists. The worlds largest ethnic group without a nation to call their own.

The OP has nothing to do with Israel. Off topic !

[Mosha]

If they were fighting Israel they would be the good guys, but because they want an homeland in muslim lands they are terrorists. The worlds largest ethnic group without a nation to call their own.

The OP has nothing to do with Israel. Off topic !

So is talk of Kurdish terrorists.

[Benmart]

The death of one man is reason enough to mourn.

Those that have not seen the eyes of the dead or the mangled bodies, have only a television concept of the gravity of violent death. RIP Dear Man.

Edited March 5, 2015 by Benmart

[Humberstone]

The same restrictions imposed on people who want to join IS should also apply to people wanting to fight them as part of militias or even, as claimed by some, terrorist organisations. You can't condemn one and turn a blind eye to the other.

[BestBitterPhuket]

Brave man. RIP.

[Johnny S]

Anybody fighting against and killing IS-terrorists is a hero

Edited March 5, 2015 by Johnny S

[Thorgal]

Anybody fighting against and killing IS-terrorists is a hero

Hezbollah, Badr Brigade, PKK, Assads' Army, and others all now suddenly become heros ?

[Mosha]

Anybody fighting against and killing IS-terrorists is a hero

Hezbollah, Badr Brigade, PKK, Assads' Army, and others all now suddenly become heros ?

It's their religion that's being *misrepresented and dragged through the mud. So why not?

*Or so our Western leaders keep on insisting.

[Thorgal]

Anybody fighting against and killing IS-terrorists is a hero

Hezbollah, Badr Brigade, PKK, Assads' Army, and others all now suddenly become heros ?

It's their religion that's being *misrepresented and dragged through the mud. So why not?

*Or so our Western leaders keep on insisting.

This OP is about a UK citizen who went to fight in Syria...and died.

Terrorism act has been implemented in UK since 2006. Section 5 more precisely.

Weren't the Kurds not fighting also against Assad (not ISIS !!!) lately without supervision of the Allied Coalition Forces ? What are the Britons doing there ?

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/01/17/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-kurds-idUKKBN0KQ0KC20150117

Did the Western leaders insist on this one too ? No boots on the ground and no fights with Assad...and there we have suddenly a Royal Marine...who became a freedom fighter...

Edited March 5, 2015 by Thorgal

[Bwanatickey]

The PKK are a decades old freedom fighter group who want independence in their own state, the fact that , their homeland happens to straddle 3 other countries, thanks to BRITISH drawing skills on a map after WW1, makes it even tougher.

The Kurds in Syria are facing survival, because even the Turks want them annihilated.

[BKKBobby]

The PKK are a decades old freedom fighter group who want independence in their own state, the fact that , their homeland happens to straddle 3 other countries, thanks to BRITISH drawing skills on a map after WW1, makes it even tougher.

The Kurds in Syria are facing survival, because even the Turks want them annihilated.

Four countries. The fourth is independent of british drawing skills: Iran.

Should all people without a homeland but who make a majority of a region have the right to claim the land as its own new legitimate state?

Lets say the northern parts of these three nordic countries: Sweden, Finland and Norway, which have a native population called Samer wants to have a own sovereign state in their native region, would that be legitimate?

One could expect that Samer would find it attractive to have their own country if one would find big gas or oil reserves in their native regions.

Edited March 6, 2015 by BKKBobby