The body of a former Royal Marine who was the first Briton killed while fighting against Islamic State has been restored to his family in a moving moment on the Syria-Iraq border.
Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, 25, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was killed on March 2 while fighting alongside Kurdish forces in the frontline village of Tel Khuzela.
His body was handed to his father and uncle in a ceremony at the border. Hundreds of Syrian Kurds, including fighters, who had draped his coffin in Kurdish flags and Union Jacks, watched as the coffin was loaded on to an ambulance to be taken to Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Chris Scurfield, his father, told the BBC the ceremony was “overwhelming” and “very special and comforting” to his family.
Mr Scurfield, who was an expert in battlefield medicine, is believed to have travelled to Syria three or four months ago hoping to provide medical and humanitarian support.
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He was said to have been horrified by the atrocities being carried out by Isis.
In a statement after his death, his family said: “His flame might have burned briefly, but it burned brightly with love, courage, conviction and honour and we are very proud of him.”
About 100 westerners, including several Britons, are thought to have travelled to fight with the Kurds.
A 19-year-old British soldier was last month returned to his unit after joining the Kurdish peshmerga and earlier this month a German teenager became the first western woman to die fighting Isis.
About 2,000 people attended the funeral march for Ivana Hoffman, 19, through the city of Duisburg. She died a week ago while fighting with the people’s protection units near Tal Tamr in the Hassakeh region.
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She joined the group about six months ago.