Kiwi safe and well, say family

A New Zealander who was known to have been in Syria is safe and well in California, his family say.

A New Zealander who Prime Minister John Key said the Government had “lost contact” with is believed to have been killed fighting in Syria. The unidentified man would be the first New Zealand casualty in the Syrian civil war, where a small group of Kiwis has joined the rebel forces.

Chinese-born artist Weiming Chen has a New Zealand passport and has travelled to Syria to fight alongside the rebel forces.

His nephew, Alexander Karsten-Chou, told Radio NZ that Mr Chen had been in touch with family from California after news broke of a New Zealander being killed in Syria.

A Syrian Government representative at the UN in New York said on Sunday that a New Zealander was among the foreign “mercenaries” and “terrorists” who had died while fighting Government troops. Mr Key said on Tuesday that he was told in January there was “a high probability” a New Zealander had been killed while fighting in the region.