British Woman Killed Fighting With Kurds Against Turkish Forces

A British woman who was fighting with the all-female Kurdish armed unit - the YPJ - has been killed in Syria.

According to the BBC, Anna Campbell, 26, from Lewes in East Sussex, died last Thursday in Afrin, a city that has been under bombardment from Turkish forces.

Turkey has been fighting Kurdish groups on Syrian territory close to its border since January, and have continually launched air and ground offensives.

It is believed that Ms Campbell died in a Turkish airstrike. 

Ms Campbell was a qualified plumber in the UK, travelled to Syria in May last year to help the Kurds, who were at the time battling the Islamic State (IS) group.

Her father, Dirk Campbell, told the BBC:

"She wanted to create a better world and she would do everything in her power to do that."

"I told her of course that she was putting her life in danger, which she knew full well she was doing.

"I feel I should have done more to persuade her to come back, but she was completely adamant."

Ms Campbell is the first woman to have died fighting with Kurdish groups in Syria. 

She is also the first Briton to have died since Turkey began it's incursion in to Kurdish held areas of the wartorn country.

It is reported that Ms Campbell was fighting in Deir ez-Zor against IS before travelling to help defend Afrin from Turkish advances.

Her father told the BBC that she had to persuade YPG commanders to let her go to the city.

"With fair hair and blue eyes they knew she would stand out, but she dyed her hair black and persuaded them to let her go."

In a statement to The Guardian, YPJ commander and spokesperson Nesrin Abdullah said:

"(Campbell's) martyrdom is a great loss to us because with her international soul, her revolutionary spirit, which demonstrated the power of women, she expressed her will in all her actions.

"On behalf of the Women's Defence Units YPJ, we express our deepest condolences to (her) family and we promise to follow the path she took up."

"We will represent her in the entirety of our struggles."