Briton fighting against Daesh killed in Raqqa

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces fighters, pass through holes as they cross from building to building to hide from snipers, on the front line with Daesh group militants in Raqqa, Syria. (AP)

LONDON: A British man fighting alongside Kurds against Daesh in Syria has been killed during the push to liberate Raqqa, his family said on Tuesday.
Sniper Jac Holmes, from Bournemouth in southern England, who was fighting with the Kurdistan People’s Protection Units, was clearing mines on Monday when he died, his mother told the Press Association.
“He stood up for what he believed in and he had the courage of his convictions to go out and do something where he thought that the West were not doing enough,” said Angie Blannin.
“To defeat ISIS (Daesh) he felt that it was not just a Syrian problem, or Middle Eastern problem, it was a world problem,” she said of the 24-year-old.
Kurdish officials told her that her son had been clearing mines in the city, despite being a sniper.
“It is all a bit sketchy but I am guessing he stepped on a land mine or one went off close to him, or it was a suicide vest.”
Blannin said she had initially tried to talk her son, a former painter and decorator, out of going to fight IS (Daesh) in 2015, but described him as “very headstrong.”
He fought alongside Kurdish soldiers and had previously suffered a gunshot wound.
“I am extremely proud of him. All my family are incredibly proud,” his mother told PA.
US President Donald Trump said Saturday that the end of Daesh “caliphate is in sight” with the fall of Raqqa.
The declaration came four days after US-backed Kurdish-led forces recaptured the city, the capital of Daesh’s self-proclaimed caliphate and its last major stronghold in Syria.