British woman Anna Campbell who joined all-female fighting unit killed in Syria

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ^ | 3/19/18

[BBell]

A British woman fighting with a Kurdish armed unit has died in Syria, her father has said.

Anna Campbell, 26, from Lewes, East Sussex, died on March 15 in Afrin while with the Kurdish Women's Protection Units, the YPJ.

It is feared she was killed by Turkish airstrikes.

Ms Campbell - who had dyed her fair hair black so she would not stand out - is the first British woman to have been killed in Syria with the Kurds and the first Briton to be killed in the battle for Afrin.

Seven other Britons have died in the country while fighting alongside the groups.

Ms Campbell's father, Dirk, told the BBC she "wanted to create a better world and she would do everything in her power to do that".

He added: "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."

The YPJ is an all-female brigade of the Kurdish People's Protection Units YPG, which has around 50,000 Kurdish men and women fighting against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in northern Syria.

The group has been defending the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin from Turkish forces backed by Syrian rebels after they launched an offensive in mid-January.

Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group, an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has led an insurgency in Turkey for decades.

Ms Campbell had been qualified plumber living in Bristol before she left to join the Kurdish militia in Syria.

Her friends and commanders are thought to have tried to dissuade her from going, saying it was too dangerous.

He said his daughter was an "incredibly principled, brave, determined, committed

[Cronos]

With due respect to your son, MM and to all our brave soldiers who fought bravely and righteously and commendably, but I believe the Gulf wars were a mistake - Gulf war ONE more so than Gulf War two.

Gulf war one was fighting on behalf of the Saudis and saving Kuwaitis who later both bit us in the a$$. If Saddy had been left with Kuwait (to which he had a point as a province of Iraq), the results would have been

• Saddam gouging money out of the Sauds, Qataris, Emiratis and Bahrainis so leaving them no money to spend on madrassas spreading Wahabiism over sotuh asia, south-east asia and africa and europe. i can tell you for a fact that the Muslims in all those regions were effectively radicalized post 1990 thanks to Saudimoney
• He would have drawn in the jihadis like AlQ etc who wanted to kill him and he would have killed them ruthlessly
• He wanted the Kuwaiti money to take on Iran once more - with more weaponry. he would have focused the Iranians on him rather than on interfering elsewhere
• No Saudi training so no Taliban
• No Taliban ruling Afghanistan, no AlQ in Afgh
• No 9/11
• No chaos in Iraq leading to the Christian population dwindling from 2 million to 100,000
• No Islamic state
• No killing of Christians and Yazidis in Syria
• No destruction of Palmyra

  By the time of Gulf War II, Saddy was a gone case. Wasting resources on him was fruitless the USA shoudl have gone into Pakistan to get Osama. If Saddy was left, there would be no Islamik state, and there would still be 2 million Christians in Iraq.

  Again, your son was brave as were all our soldiers and I mean zero disrespect to them

[Cronos]

A_strike — I’m not sure where you get off badmouthing wardaddy. To be blunt, you’re a No0b with less than a year on this forum, and wd has been here 17 years. He has arguments but he keeps it clean and they are here in public. Why do you not do the same?

[Cronos]

Oh great N00b, now you send snarky private messages to me. Did no one teach you the manners of this forum? or life in general?

[A strike]

What is your problem dude?

I’m trying not to display your ignorance/stupidity.

[wardaddy]

Not much in the way of substance

Just quips

Cute

[wardaddy]

Look at the posting history

All snark no substance

I doubt said poster knows anything about the YPG

our version of a troll

Here for their own amusement

And nobody here of any sand fights on freepmail

Freepmail is for semi private discourse with freepers you know or are getting to know

[wardaddy]

Went downhill after your cogent post

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

You make a lot of really significant points about the Saudis versus Saddam, and I basically agree with most of them.

However, I took a long-term view of Saddam and his planned nuclear weapons/CBW programs as part of an Islamic “Nuclear Triad Force” aimed at Israel.

We know he had the equipment in place at Osirik and even captured Iraqi scientists told us after 2003 about future weapons plans.

With Iran going full steam ahead on their nuke developments, and Syria coming up the rear with theirs (till the Israelis took them out up until about a year ago), you could see what lay ahead for Israel and even Saudi Arabia if the Triad attacked.

By the way, just for a historical footnote, my son’s squad discovered CBW suits (Communist bloc made from the description of them - Green) on the eastern side of the Euphrates River after they bridged it (his company seized the bridge at Hindaya and then put down the first ribbon-bridge (modern pontoon bridge) in combat for lighter armored and supply vehicles to cross).

This was after April 3th. The company/unit he was in was then detached to patrol duty, capturing hundreds of surrendering Iraqi regulars (not necessarily the survivors of three Republican Guards divisions that were wiped out by air and artillery attacks by the 3rd Id and Air Force).

His squad (he was the sharpshooter M249 gunner) discovered enemy bunkers full of ammunition and supplies, including the Chemical/Biological Warfare suits.

Now, let me throw in another wrench into the system - the No. Koreans and Pakistanis.

If Saddam had been left in power, based on what the Norks and Paks did to build up Iran’s nuclear program (along with the Russians), it is not inconceivable that Iraq would have made very significant progress towards developing a nuclear weapons system for future blackmail and/or use against Israel and Saudi Arabia in a combined Nuclear Triad Force (Iran, Iraq and Syria - Baathist, Shiite, Sunni, etc. It wouldn’t matter - the target always was to wipe out Israel).

With Saddam gone, the whole equation changed but the US played the occupation of Iraq badly, not really learning from the better occupation of Japan and OMGUS governments in occupied West Germany, the latter in which we left many local non-war criminal German officials in place to keep the governments functioning.

Our country is good at fighting wars but not great in dealing with the aftermath of them. Too much politicking and not enough on-the-grounds pragmatic approaches.

The Middle East, with the exception of Israel (Jordan is an artificial country who wouldn’t exist today with the help of the US and Israel), is a perpetual battleground between the Sunnis, Shiites and the even more extreme factions of them (esp. the Wahabbis sect).

Our hope lies in the new Saudi prince who, if he is honest about what he says, will try to bring conservative Saudis into the 15th Century.

Nice discussion with you.

[wardaddy]

Im with you

Criticized for fighting ISIS

on this forum

Amazing

Then again it is free republic

[dfwgator]

Bad guys can fight ISIS, too.

Stalin fought Hitler, after all.

No good guys in Syria.

[wardaddy]

Thanks

I’m not sure why this thread has degenerated into a conflict over a girl from England who goes to Syria and joins a Kurdish separatist women’s brigade fighting ISIS and is killed doing so

Regardless of her daft past or YPG faults

They are fighting our common enemy

And she died doing so

So Antifa claims her

It’s like Travis McGee often says here.....if you’re trapped in your home with your family surrrounded by a band of savages from the city who want your stuff and your women given that power has been out six months
And a stranger shows up witting to help
Are you going to really care if he was once in the Klan or Communist Workers Party if he’s loaded with supplies and ammo and the will to fight beside you

[tjd1454]

Agreed. Turkey has become our enemy and has no place in NATO.

[Blue Jays]

"...Went downhill after your cogent post..."

---

Thanks. That region of the world is filled with complexity and endless factions.
It is challenging to know whether this woman was truly an “ally of freedom” or not.
She was reportedly aiming bullets towards ISIS jihadists, so she has that in her favor.

[dfwgator]

So were the folks who fought for the “Abraham Lincoln Brigade” in the Spanish Civil War honorable?

[Blue Jays]

"...Spanish Civil War..."

---

I am unfamiliar with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from that 1930s conflict.
As far as this British woman...my sense is to cut her some slack if she was overseas shooting at ISIS terrorists. :-)

[Pelham]

I’m pretty sure wardaddy intended that for the first name he was responding to... he just pinged us along with the target.

[JudgemAll]

Horsesht.

Assad wants anything but peace to keep his Iran puppet position.

Iran is using Alawites and Lebanese Hezbollah as canon fodder. Iran is not interested in hyppies but in dumbed down useful idiot soldiers like Assad and exploited Hezbollah troops to wage proxy war on Israel,

Alwaites want no war with Israel anymore and no war with Kurds.

but here is Putin warmongeriers opening a front in Afrin against Kurds and letting Iran and Turkey in to wipe them out. Militantism and terrorism demoralizes and dums down. All in the KgB program of pre-recruiting pre-ripening for rot

[JudgemAll]

Yes islam can be pacified. The Shias are proof of that. Originally Mohammed’s family was murdered by Kalifate Sunis.

For all Mohammed’s fault, he was martyred, like it or not, and if we are to destroy the Kalifate and jihadis, you simply split suni muslims by making them realize they have been brainwashed by the very people who murdered his family.

You all fail to realize that to win war you must split the enemy. Showing , muslim to muslim, that Suni islam is a fraud is the way to go.

But warmongering useful idiots lack such education, so they resort to being brainwashed into endless wars as Assad-Iran_Putin puppets. They of course rationalize being used as demoralized useful idiots in ad hominem attacks about some neocon jewish world conspiracy.

This would make me laugh so ridiculous it is, but it is sadly tragic paranoia.

[JudgemAll]

Assad bombed and murdered Kurds and Christians in the past and will do it again.

There was a chance at one point for Lebanese Christians to unite with lebanese shias by splitting hezbollah to boot out for good Assad out of Lebanon as rhey had booted out the Ottoman in the past.

Instead traitor “Christian” Lebanese Aoun reinforced and allied with Hezbollah and Assad to massacre Christian resistance in Lebanon.

You are completely ignoring the fate of real Christians who are to this day persecuted under Assad for questioning his methods and history.

[Cronos]

However, I took a long-term view of Saddam and his planned nuclear weapons/CBW programs as part of an Islamic “Nuclear Triad Force” aimed at Israel.

That was a valid fear, but:

• the Israelis took out his first attempt at Osirak and i'm sure they could have taken out the second
• He would have had more troubles worrying about the iranis than the israelis. You might have even seen an Irani=Israeli tacit alliance like there is the present Israeli-Saudi tacit alliance

With Iran going full steam ahead on their nuke developments, and Syria coming up the rear with theirs (till the Israelis took them out up until about a year ago), you could see what lay ahead for Israel and even Saudi Arabia if the Triad attacked - that's going on the faulty premise that Iran-Iraq-Syria would unite even on any matter. They wouldn't -- the hatred of the Persian is so deeply ingrained in Arabs that Saddam was even able to convince many Shia Iraqis to actively support the war against iran. And as for Syria, Hafeez Assad was not a fool to tie with Saddam

based on what the Norks and Paks did to build up Iran’s nuclear program (along with the Russians), it a valid concern but note that the Pakis didn't help the Iranians with their weaponry - the two are rivals. But the Paks and Iraq -- yes, very likely. The thing would have been to prevent the Pakis getting nooks as well. Now they have theIzlamicbomb.

I don't believe that Iraq could have been governed properly like Japan or Germany. The latter were in a different state of progress and also were unitary societies, while Iraq isn't/wasn't.

The Middle East is right now a battleground, but really speaking the sunni-shia fights were only in the early days of islam and then only arose once more during the Safavid times in the 1700s (when the Safavids forcibly converted Iran to Shiaism -- there is a clear chance that Iran can be taken off Izlam.

Our hope lies in the new Saudi prince who, if he is honest about what he says, will try to bring conservative Saudis into the 15th Century. - I hate to say it, but those hopes will dashed - MBS is only interested in his own power, he started teh wars in Syria, Yemen etc. and tried to kill off fracking, but lost. Now he has his planned NEOM which will be billion$ down the drain. He will trigger off a palace civil war once King Salman is dead.