British man Luke Rutter killed fighting Isil in Syria

A British man killed fighting with Kurdish forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) filmed a video before his death where he apologised to his family for not telling them he was going to Syria. 

Luke Rutter, 22, was killed last week during the battle to drive Isil fighters from Raqqa, their self-declared capital in northern Syria. He is the fourth Briton to die fighting with the Kurds. 

Mr Rutter, who was from Birkenhead in Merseyside, joined the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in March but reportedly told his family that the was volunteering for the French Foreign Legion.

 In a video recorded before his death, he apologised for the deception. 

Sitting in a field with an AK-47 across his lap, he said: “I lied to people I care about to come here. I said that I was going somewhere else, I didn’t. I apologise massively for that. Aside from that I don’t regret my decision and I hope you respect it. 

His death was announced in a statement by the YPG, which said that he died so “all the people of the world may have a free life”.

His death was announced in a statement by the YPG, which said that he died so “all the people of the world may have a free life”.

Kimmie Taylor, a British woman fighting alongside Kurdish fighters, posted “rest in peace, comrade” on Facebook in response to news of Mr Rutter’s death.  

Mr Rutter was killed alongside an American volunteer named Robert Grodt. Mr Grodt came to prominence during the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2012 when he was filmed coming to the aid of a woman who had been pepper sprayed by a New York police officer.  

The British volunteer was given the Kurdish nom-de-guerre Soro Zinar by his Kurdish comrades. In the video he speaks of having “nothing very significant” in his educational history but was put through weapons and language training with the YPG before being sent to the front lines.

Jesper Söder, a Swedish fighter with the YPG, said he heard Mr Rutter had been a good recruit. “I knew who he was although I didn’t serve with him directly. From everything I heard he did very well in training and was a good fighter,” he told The Telegraph.  

Mr Rutter was part of a unit fighting with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed rebel group made up mainly of Kurds but also some Arabs. The SDF is leading the assault on Raqqa with air support from the US-led coalition against Isil. 

He is believed to have been killed during an ambush on the outskirts of Raqqa on July 5. “Our comrade Soro was martyred in the right against Daesh fascism,” the YPG said, using Mr Rutter’s Kurdish nickname and a disparaging Arabic name for Isil. 

The Rutter family could not be reached for comment. 

Three other British volunteers have died fighting for the Kurds against Isil. 

Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, a former Royal Marine was killed in March 2015 while fighting in northeast Syria. 

Dean Carl Evans, a farmer from Reading, died during the offensive to take back the town of Manbij on the Syrian-Turkish border in July last year. 

Ryan Lock, a chef from West Sussex, shot himself rather than being taken prisoner in fighting just before Christmas 2016.  

The emergence of Isil