Associated Press
ERBIL, Iraq--A British citizen fighting alongside Kurdish forces
against Islamic State group has been killed in Syria, a Kurdish
commander said on Wednesday.
Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, an ex-Royal Marine, 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.
"We're trying to make contact with his mother to see what her
wishes are, " Mr. Matson told AP Wednesday. "Otherwise he wished to
be buried here under an olive tree."
Matson said on his Facebook page that Mr. Scurfield also had
Greek citizenship and had served in the Greek army and as a British
Royal Marine.
Dozens of foreign fighters have traveled to Syria and
neighboring Iraq to fight with Kurdish militias battling 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 Kurdish militia fighting in northern Syria.
At least one other foreign fighter, Australian Ashley Johnson,
who went by Ase, is known to have been killed fighting alongside
the Kurds.
Islamic State group, which currently holds territory in a third
of Iraq and Syria, has recruited thousands of foreign fighters,
mainly from Europe and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Scurfield's parents, Chris and Vicci Scurfield, are
archaeologists who live in a detached former farmhouse in the
village of Royston. In an interview with Sky News Wednesday, his
mother said the family is "reeling" from the news.
"We're waiting to hear from the police and Foreign Office,
trying to get our heads round everything," Vicci Scurfield told Sky
News.
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.
Dan Jarvis, the local member of parliament from Barnsley
Central, where Mr. Scurfield is from, said Wednesday that the
Briton traveled to Syria to provide humanitarian aid.
"My understanding was that he went there for honorable reasons,"
Jarvis told Sky News. "There are other ways in which people who
have these legitimate concerns can make a contribution, supporting
charities or NGOs."
"The advice is rightly not to go there," Mr. Jarvis added.
Neither the U.S. nor the U.K. have banned citizens from fighting
with militias against 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 Raqqa
province, where Islamic State group has established the de facto
capital of its self-styled caliphate.
Copyright 2015 Associated Press
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