Italian YPG fighter killed in northeast Syria

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – An Italian volunteer in the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), was killed in Derik, northeast Syria last December, the YPG announced Monday. 

Giovanni Francesco Asperti, 55 from Bergamo, used the nom de guerre Hiwa Bosco. The first Italian to die serving alongside Kurdish forces, Bosco was reportedly killed in an accident on December 7, 2018 – not in combat.

“Hiwa Bosco, one of hundreds of revolutionaries, who was born in Italy and joined the fight against ISIS in Rojava Kurdistan and north Syria was martyred due to an unfortunate accident while he was on his duty,” the YPG said in a statement. 

The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed the news and the Italian consulate in Erbil is following the case, La Repubblica reports. 

The YPG statement also announced the death of Baqir Nahsan, which occurred on January 5 in Deir ez-Zor.

“Throughout his life in the liberation struggle, Hiwa Bosco gave an example of true revolutionary life and has always acted on the basis of these values until the last moment of his life,” the YPG said. 

“He had taken part in the struggle against the Islamic State in Rojava and northern Syria.”

Volunteers have traveled from across the globe to join Kurdish forces in their fight against ISIS and to assist in the creation of the self-autonomous region of Rojava, built on the political ideology of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Ocalan. 

Dozens have been killed in the conflict, many of them joining without any previous military experience.