Keith Broomfield

Keith Broomfield
Born 1979
Westminster, Massachusetts
Died June 3, 2015 (aged 36)
Qentere near Kobani, Syria
Allegiance  Rojava
Service/branch YPG
Battles/wars Syrian Civil War

Keith Broomfield (August 3, 1979 – June 3, 2015) was an American volunteer fighter who was killed while serving with the Kurdish YPG in Syria. Broomfield is likely the first U.S. citizen to die fighting alongside Kurds in Syrian Civil War.

Biography

Keith Broomfield was born in 1979 in Westminster, Massachusetts to Tom and Donna Broomfield. He has been working as the production manager for the family's manufacturing firm Broomfield Laboratories in Bolton, Massachusetts. After a motorcycle accident and rediscovering his faith, Broomfield told his father he was called to fight in Syria. He joined the YPG on February 24, 2015 under the nom de guerre Gelhat Raman.

Kobane

On arriving to Kobane in February, 2015, he was transferred to the military academy of Kantona Kobane. He received his month-long basic training and had a translator on hand to help him. By March, Keith, now Gelhat, wanted to go to the frontline that at this point had ended up near Sexler, on the Eurphrates River to the west of the city of Kobane. After several more weeks, with a new operation "Rubar Qamishlo" beginning, the axis of attack for the canton switched from west to south-east and east. By April, Gelhat reached the frontline after joining the Kobane Sniper unit. There were a number of foreigners already there, and a number of English-speaking Kurds as well.

Gelhat choose to stay continuously in the frontline from April until his death in June. Despite lacking traditional military training, he adapted himself very well. Many of his comrades spoke highly of him as a great shot and a hard-worker. His Kurdish also slowly improved as well.

However, this time for the Kobane Sniper Unit was very difficult. The commander, Herdem (Musa the Sniper) was killed in early April. This was followed by the deaths of three more of the snipers, two more were wounded in explosions, another was shot through the chest, and several returned home or to Cizre Canton due to combat fatigue.

In early June, Gelhat was moving forward when an enemy sniper arose. Gelhat eliminated several ISIS fighters before falling to their enemy sniper.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.