British soldier killed as captured jihadi ‘Beatles’ speak out
A MEMBER of the British special forces has been killed by a roadside bomb in Syria – the first death of a serving UK soldier in the fight against Isil.
The unnamed man was killed on Thursday alongside an American special forces trooper when their convoy hit an improvised explosive device in the northern Syrian city of Manbij, also wounding four members of the local council.
He had been embedded with US special forces overseeing a clean-up operation in Manbij, which was controlled by Isil until it was taken by allied Kurdish and Arab forces in summer 2016.
It came as two British Isil fighters being held in Syria gave their first interview since their arrest in January.
Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, members of a group of jihadists thought to have tortured and killed hostages and dubbed “The Beatles”, said it would be impossible to receive a fair trial in the UK because of the media’s coverage of their case.
Manbij, close to the Turkish border, earned the nickname “Little London”
because of the large numbers of British Isil fighters stationed in the city during the days of the so-called caliphate.
Since 2014 the Us-led coalition against Isil has provided weapons, training and other support to Kurdish and Arab forces fighting jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
Isil has largely been cleared from northern Syria, but insurgents are known to operate around the city and have carried out a number of attacks in recent months. While British troops have been training Iraqi forces, there has been no official admission they have special forces on the ground in Syria.
A Ministry Of Defence spokesman said last night: “It is with regret that we must confirm that a member of the UK Armed Forces was killed by an improvised explosive device in Syria yesterday. The individual was embedded with US forces on a counter-daesh operation when the incident occurred. The family has been notified and our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.”
Col. Ryan Dillon, a Us-led coalition spokesman, said an investigation was under way to identify the possible attackers. “We have our initial assessment and thoughts on that but we won’t provide them until the investigation is complete,” he said.
The incident happened late on Thursday – the day US President Donald Trump said he would pull out forces “very soon”, in an impromptu announcement that caught his advisers off guard. “We’re knocking the hell out of Isil,” he said.