Jac Holmes (18 January 1993 – 23 October 2017) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

volunteer with the Kurdish

YPG The People's Defense Units (YPG), also called People's Protection Units, is a libertarian socialist US-backed Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The YPG mostly consists of K ...

militia who fought against

ISIL The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signif ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

from January 2015 until his death in

Raqqa Raqqa (, also , Kurdish language, Kurdish: ''Reqa'') is a city in Syria on the North bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine city and b ...

on 23 October 2017 while clearing mines from the city. Holmes was a former IT worker and decorator from

Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...

in Dorset. He had no military experience before travelling to Syria in January 2015, shortly after he turned 22. Holmes did three tours of northern Syria with the YPG and featured regularly in international media about foreign fighters with Kurdish-led forces, including the

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documentary 'Frontline Fighting: The Brits Battling ISIS'. His death came four days after the Syrian Democratic Forces declared the liberation of Raqqa. In a Q&A on

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on 4 October 2017, Holmes said his reason for travelling to Syria was "Because I was sick of seeing what was going on in Syria, and western nations not doing enough to help" Josh Walker, another British volunteer with the YPG who was cleared of terrorism charges after returning from fighting in Syria, said Holmes was "A good fighter dedicated to the cause, he learned & spoke the language well - which is unusual in foreign fighters. Among foreigners and Kurds alike he was very popular and a very good man." Holmes took the Kurdish nom-de-guerre Sores Amanos. 'Sores' means 'revolution' in

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

. He was one of the longest serving U.K. foreign fighters when he died. During the battle for Raqqa, he commanded the four-man 223 YPG Sniper Unit made up of international volunteers from Spain, the US and Germany. Holmes was killed on 23 October by an IED in Raqqa. He was the sixth British volunteer to be killed while fighting ISIL in Syria. Hundreds of mourners gathered in Dorset on Friday 2 February 2018 to attend Holmes' funeral. "About 500 people, including family members, friends, British Kurds, the parents of other British men to have died in Syria and about 30 former

comrades from across the world" attended the service in Wimborne to pay tribute to Holmes, according to The Guardian. His coffin was covered with flowers in the colours of the YPG and the YPG commander Nuri Mahmud spoke via Skype from Syria to offer his personal condolences and to commend Jac for his contribution to the eradication of ISIS in Raqqa. Following the service, his coffin was taken to Poole Crematorium.

References

External links

Jac Holmes Instagram account
(link dead) {{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, Jac 1993 births 2017 deaths 20th-century English people 21st-century English people Military personnel killed in the Syrian civil war People's Defense Units People from Poole Victims of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant