In Syria, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG’)s foreign volunteers have generated quite a lot of media buzz, especially when they die in battle. They largely hail from Western nations like the US, the UK, Australia and various European countries. But did you know that foreign (non-Syrian) Arabs serve in the YPG as well? The first of these-an Egyptian-has died fighting for the group, ARA News reports.
Badeen al-Imam was reported as killed in action Sunday. The Cairo native reportedly died a few days earlier on August 3.
ARA News said Imam was killed in clashes with Daesh (ISIS) close to Manbij, the site of intense fighting between the YPG and Daesh in recent days. Most of the city is reportedly now under Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) control.
The YPG constitutes a large part of the SDF.
Imam is the first Egyptian to die fighting for the group, and allegedly the first non-Syrian Arab as well.
#Syria first #YPG Egyptian(and non-Syrian Arab)fighter Badeen al-Imam was killed in #Manbij on 3/8 #Egypt pic.twitter.com/opvvOmeWd3
— Putintintin (@putintintin1) August 7, 2016
British, Slovenian and American volunteers have died recently too.
