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US woman killed in Syria British man killed in Syria, reports say
(about 1 hour later)
A US woman has been killed in fighting in Syria, according to her family. The Foreign Office is looking into reports that a British man supporting the Syrian opposition has been killed in fighting, alongside a US woman and another westerner.
Nicole Mansfield, a convert to Islam, died while apparently fighting with the opposition against government forces, though the specifics of her death were as yet unclear. The three are believed to have been killed in Idlib province in the north of Syria. The Foreign Office could not confirm any details about the Briton.
But the American woman's family said she had died while apparently fighting with the opposition against government forces. She is named as Nicole Mansfield, from Michigan.
"I'm just devastated," her aunt, Monica Mansfield Speelman, told Reuters. "Evidently, she was fighting with opposition forces.""I'm just devastated," her aunt, Monica Mansfield Speelman, told Reuters. "Evidently, she was fighting with opposition forces."
Speelman said the FBI informed the family on Thursday afternoon. She said Mansfield, a single mother of an 18-year-old daughter, had converted to Islam about five years ago but that she did not know when her niece had travelled to Syria. Speelman said the FBI informed the family on Thursday afternoon.
"I didn't think she would stoop that low to go over there and try to harm anybody," Speelman said of her niece. She told the Detroit Free Press her niece had married an Arab immigrant several years ago, converted to Islam, divorced, and then two or three years ago moved to Dubai.
Syrian news reports say that Mansfield and two other westerners killed with her were fighters for the opposition to Syria's government. "I didn't think she would stoop that low to go over there [Syria] and try to harm anybody," Speelman said of her niece.
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