A young
British man fighting for a group of Al Qaeda-backed extremists in Syria
was reportedly killed by U.S. and Arab airstrikes yesterday.
The
jihadist, who goes by the nom de guerre Khalil al-Brittani but whose
real name is understood to be Ibrahim Kamara, is understood to have been
fighting for Al Nusra Front in the stretches of north west Syria that
have come under the group's control.
Last night a picture appeared on Facebook which appears to show 19-year-old Kamara’s face in an open body bag.
He was reportedly hit by a missile fired from an American drone in Aleppo.
Rage: Supporters of Al-Qaeda's Syria
affiliate Al-Nusra Front hold placards denouncing Arab states that have
joined anti-Islamic State group campaign
His mother, Khadijah Kamara, 35, who lives in Brighton, said that she felt numb and confused when she discovered her son was dead.
'It’s confusing. I don’t know what I felt or how I am feeling.'
She also said she knew her son was going to die after he called her from Syria and seriously considered disowning him.
She told the Guardian: 'He called me in February. He said: "Mum, I’m in Syria", and I hung up. He rang again and I said: "Don’t ever call me".'
Ms Kamara said her football-loving son was 'normal' but had fallen in with the 'wrong people'.
Amer Deghayes, who fought alongside the teenager and is also from Brighton, posted news of the death on his Facebook page.
Another fighter said Kamara had no intention of returning to the UK.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: 'We are aware of reports of the death of a British national in Syria.'
They added that reports are difficult to verify as officials cannot access the war-torn region.
The guided-missile cruiser USS
Philippine Sea launches a Tomahawk cruise missile against IS targets in
Syria, as seen from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the
Arabian Gulf
A structure in Tall Al Qitar, Syria,
moments after a U.S. airstrike. In three waves of nighttime attacks
launched over four hours early on Tuesday, the U.S. and its Arab
partners made more than 200 airstrikes
Al
Nusra Front, which is an entirely different group from ISIS, operates as
Al Qaeda's presence in the four-year-old Syrian conflict but was not
itself the subject of this week's U.S.-Arab airstrikes.
The
militant group evacuated its bases in populated areas of the Idlib
region in northwest Syria after U.S.-led forces carried out air strikes
on the group, its fighters said today.
At
least 50 fighters from the group and eight civilians were killed in
strikes by a U.S.-led coalition in Syria on Tuesday, according to the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based organisation that
monitors the conflict.
Al-Nusra
was formed during the ongoing three-year Syrian civil war. It has
emerged as one of the most effective groups fighting President Assad's
Syrian regime. It has experienced foreign fighters who have seen combat
in Iraq and other war zones.
Today
the United States military said it had launched five more air strikes
targeting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq in a latest round of attacks
on the militant group which has seized swathes of territory in both
Syria and Iraq.
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK
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