Aussie fighter Reece Harding died near ISIS HQ

Gold Coast man Reece Harding entered a “declared area” in Syria and was within 50km of Islamic State’s capital of Raqqa when he was killed.

Gold Coast man Reece Harding entered a “declared area” in Syria and was within 50km of Islamic State’s capital of Raqqa when he was killed by an improvised explos­ive device during a firefight with the terrorist group, Kurdish fighters claim in a statement.

In the weeks before his death, the 23-year-old had fought with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in battles with Islamic State along Syria’s border with Turkey — in breach of Australia’s Foreign Fighters Act.

At some stage, Harding’s unit moved south and is believed to have been participating in or close to battles in which the strategic town of Ain Issa, 50km north of Raqqa, fell to the YPG on June 23.

Intelligence consultancy The Soufan Group said that, with the fall of the town and the taking of a military base, “Islamic State is facing perhaps its most serious symbolic and meaningful threat since it declared itself a caliphate”.

Four days after the YPG seized the town, with the support of US airstrikes, Harding was killed when an IED exploded as his unit sought to “rescue” the village of Mashrafah, on the outskirts of Ain Issa. The YPG said yesterday that it was just one of many “liberating operations” Harding had joined within days of joining the conflict on May 4 — including one to retake­ Islamic State-controlled villages in Al-Hasaka­h province, in Syria’s northeast corner.

“After that, Reece joined numer­ous liberating operations in several ISIS-occupied rural and urban areas, where he played a major role and fought a daring battle against brutal enemy forces,” the statement added.

“Unfortunately in one of those task operations which inflicted severe blows to the terrorists, we had comrade Reece (become) a fallen martyr. Reece was martyred June 27 as result of an IED explosion during (an) operation to rescue Misherfa (sic) village.”

The statement went on to praise his personality and battlefield abilities, and said he chose a Kurdish name to honour that used by Ashley Johnston, who in February became the first Australian to be killed fighting with the YPG.

Entering or remaining in al-Raqqa province without a valid reason is a crime — with a maximum penalty of a 10-year jail sentence — under the Abbott government’s declared areas legislation. Another Queensland man, Ashley Dyball, has been fighting in the same unit as Harding.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton warned this week that foreign fighters such as Harding and Dyball would either die in battle or face jail in Australia. Harding, a promising junior swimmer with no military experience until May, had previously told his father, Keith, that his fear of jail may mean he would never return to Australia.