The ex-public schoolboy who quit City to fight IS jihadis
A FORMER public schoolboy who left his lucrative job in the City to risk death battling Islamic State has returned home.
The 28-year-old ex-currency trader has spent five months fighting alongside Kurdish forces against jihadists in northern Syria.
Despite the risk of prosecution, Harry – who is also known by the nom de guerre Macer Gifford – has insisted he can justify his actions if questioned by terror police.
Home Office ministers have warned that taking part in the conflict in Syria and Iraq could amount to an offence – even for those fighting against the extremists.
Last night the former Young Conservative pledged to co- operate. He said: ‘Whatever information they need, I’ll give it to them. But more than that, I’ll tell them why I came, what kind of person I am.
‘And then I’ll go along with the practicalities and say to them: “Do you think I am a threat to the British people? If you think that it is in the public’s interest to prosecute me, then do your worst.”
‘The people we were up against in the Islamic State, well, they are barbaric. People will understand why I went out.’
Just before leaving the warzone he told the BBC: ‘I have to go home some time, and it’s a good time to draw a line.’
He added: ‘I have achieved a little something... It hasn’t been a holiday, it hasn’t been a gap year. It’s been very stressful. I’ve seen friends die. I’ve been
‘I’ve been in terrible combats’
in some terrible combats. I can’t tell you how tired I am.’
Harry, who says he attended a £23,000a-year fee-paying school, travelled to the warzone two weeks before Christmas to join the YPG, or Kurdish People’s Protection Unit.
Despite having no military experience, speaking no Middle Eastern language and neither being a Kurd nor a Muslim, he went to Syria and after a brief training session took up arms.
He said he was appalled Prime Minister David Cameron had not done more to tackle the extremists and had wanted to fight for ‘democracy and freedom’.
Interviewed by MailOnline in February, Harry accepted he risked a horrific death at the hands of militants, who have already beheaded two British aid workers.
At the time he insisted: ‘They won’t take me alive. I’ve got a grenade in my pocket and I’ll blow myself up and take them with me. I won’t let my family see me publicly executed.’
More than 200,000 people have been killed in the conflict, with IS carrying out an orgy or destruction, murder and rape in Syria and Iraq. But Kurdish forces supported by an allied air campaign have made important gains in Syria.
Harry said: ‘ A lot has been achieved. The difference between what the country was like when I arrived and what it is like now... is chalk and cheese, totally different.’
Video footage on his mobile phone showed Harry, who grew up in a village in the East Midlands with his mother, father and two brothers, firing a sniper rifle and riding on the back of a pick-up truck as tanks move into battle.
There are images of coalition air strikes landing close by on IS positions. His film footage also includes images of the corpses of IS soldiers. Hundreds of Western fighters – including from Britain, the US and Australia – have travelled to the region to help.
The YPG has not been designated a terrorist group by the UK government. But Britons are warned against joining the conflict, whichever side they choose.
However, Mr Cameron has made clear he sees a difference between those who fight for IS and those who fight against it. Harry’s full identity has not been revealed in order to protect both him and his family.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘The UK advises against all travel to Syria and parts of Iraq. Anyone who does travel to these areas is putting themselves in considerable danger.
‘The best way to help the people of these countries is to donate to registered charities that have ongoing relief operations.’