British film director killed by Isil gunmen in Raqqa

A BRITISH filmmaker has been killed by Isil fighters in Syria while making a documentary about Kurdish fighters.

Mehmet Aksoy, 32, from London, who studied filmmaking at Goldsmiths, University of London, travelled from the UK to the Syrian city of Raqqa in June.

Mr Aksoy, who is of Kurdish descent, joined the Us-backed Kurdish militant group, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and had been filming as they fought for the capital of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s so-called caliphate.

Mr Aksoy, who was also known by his Kurdish nom de guerre “Firaz Dag”, was in a compound outside Raqqa when Isil fighters drove up and shot five YPG soldiers who were guarding the base on Tuesday morning.

The jihadists then drove into the compound and shot Mr Aksoy and a female Kurdish journalist he was standing with.

Hundreds of Mr Aksoy’s friends and family gathered at the Kurdish Community Centre in North London in a vigil on Tuesday night.

Mr Aksoy is the fifth Briton to be killed in northern Syria by Isil jihadists.

Aladdin Sinayic, a close friend of Mr Aksoy’s from London, told the BBC: “Mehmet never fought, the plan was never to fight. He told me there are better ways. He wanted to tell the stories of the fighters there, he had so much respect for them.”

“You were one of the most charming and charismatic people I’ve ever met,” Haje Keli wrote on her Facebook page.