British woman fighting for the Kurds in Syria died in combat against Turkey.

Anna Campbell. BBC.

A British woman fighting for the Kurds in Syria has died in combat against the Turkish military in Afrin last week. BBC. Anna Campbell was 26 years old and was from East Sussex. Campbell went to Syria last year to fight with the Kurds who were at the time battling against ISIS. Campbell participated in the battle for Dier Ez Zor against ISIS but when Turkey attacked Afrin she went and fought there as well. The Kurds did not want her to go as her blonde hair would have made her stand out, but she dyed her hair black to better fit in with the Kurds. Campbell reportedly died in a Turkish airstrike and is the 8th British citizen to die in the Syrian Civil War. 

My Comment:

I've got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I respect Campbell and her beliefs. I am not usually one to send out praise to feminists, but in this case I will offer an exception. Unlike many people in the west that claim to support women's rights and turn a blind eye to the Middle East, Campbell actually went to Syria and fought for them against ISIS. She picked up a gun and fought for women as opposed to hashtags and outrage. 

That alone is a pretty brave thing and if the BBC article is correct and Campbell saw active combat she deserves some kind of acknowledgement. Fighting as a westerner against ISIS is a fairly brave thing on its own. Doing it as a woman, knowing how ISIS treats them, is even braver. I've got a lot of respect for what Campbell was doing, even though I would probably have some very obvious political differences with her. 

On the other hand, long ago I said I would never join up with the Kurds because I knew something like this was going to happen. Not that I was ever considering it in the first place, but even if I was the prospect as an American citizen possibly being thrown into combat against a major US ally, Turkey, would not be something I would ever want to do. 

Going up against the Turkish military has a lot of different legal concerns and problems than just fighting ISIS. ISIS is an international terrorist organization, but had Campbell or any other westerner fighting with the Kurds wasted a couple of Turkish soldiers there could be hell to pay. I am not sure what the legality of that situation is but there is a chance that had Campbell survived and returned to the UK, she might have ended up in handcuffs. I'm not sure what would have been done but nobody else seems to know either. I can't imagine making war against a NATO ally would be something that can just be ignored though. 

Still, my sympathy is more with Campbell than with the Turks. I don't like the Turks offensive into Afrin, which seems to have ended with a victory for them. Though the Kurds are a bit far to the left for me to like them politically, at least they aren't fair-weather allies like the Turks. I've said dozens of times how they were poor allies in the fight against ISIS so we don't need to repeat the point, but it still stands. And I also think that the Turks interest with the Kurds is the destruction of their culture and ensuring that they will never be independent, plausible claims of terrorist action be damned. 

Speaking of the Turks, this might be a public relations nightmare for them. Afrin and the Turks actions there have largely flown under the radar. Not so much now. They just killed a British civilian and a female one at that. Plus Campbell was a feminist who was fighting for woman's rights against ISIS. Her face is going to be plastered all over the world right now and people will be asking "why did Turkey feel it necessary to kill the blonde feminist woman who was fighting for woman's rights?" Not a good move by Turkey, but I don't see how they avoid it short of calling off the offensive. 

I doubt that Anna Campbell will be the last westerner to die fighting with the Kurds. ISIS is still alive and kicking and the Turks and their Free Syrian Army allies are probably going to continue their offensive against the Kurds after the Afrin enclave is cleared out. Sadly, Campbell might just be the first of many westerners killed by the Turks.