Syria said Thursday that its soldiers had killed three armed individuals – at least one from Britain, and one from the United States. According to the report, the three were killed on Wednesday in an ambush set by Syrian troops, as a battle raged near the city of Idlib, 59 kilometers west of Aleppo.
The three were setting up an observation post next to an abandoned factory, the report said. When a group of Syrian soldiers approached them, the three threw a hand grenade at them, and Syrian soldiers responded by shooting and killing them. The soldiers reportedly found drawings of security installations in the area, as well as firearms and a laptop computer.
They were also carrying identification. One of the dead was identified as a 23 year old from London. A second victim was identified as Nicole Lynn, born in 1980, from Michigan.
A report in a Toronto Jewish newspaper earlier this year said that two students from Canada were killed in the Damascus area after they volunteered for the Free Syrian Army. Two other Syrians were recently killed in fighting with rebel forces, said to have been members of an Al Qaeda-affiliated fighting force, had also studied in Canada, that report said. It is not clear if they were Canadian citizens, however.