Brit mercenary outed by Moscow ‘loves killing’ and says toll of 26 dead is ‘not enough’

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A British mercenary fighting ISIS militants has boasted killing 26 times

The hired gun was pictured but not identified by Russian media outlet lenta.ru which reported he had been fighting for the Kurds for four years, but was also jailed for doing so on trips back to the UK.

“I simply love killing, and it doesn’t matter who my enemy is: Isis, Assad or Barzani (the leader of Iraqi Kurdistan),” he was quoted as saying.

“Give me a gun, and I’ll fight.”

The Russian report stated: “When asked about number of militants he had killed, he calmly replies: ’26’.

“And after a short pause he adds: ‘Not enough yet’.”

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He is leaving this base near Makhmur soon for Rojava in northern Syria

I went to fight for the Kurds for the first time in 2013

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The British mercenary was pictured at a camp an hour’s drive from the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, named after Rustem Cudi — a German national, real name Gunther Helsten, who joined Kurdish militias in Syria and was killed while fighting Isis.

But he is leaving this base near Makhmur soon for Rojava in northern Syria to fight Isis here for the third time, he told Russian journalists.

He had “happened to kill Russians”, he admitted, but also fought along side them, and they were “very good on the battlefield”.

“I went to fight for the Kurds for the first time in 2013,” he said.

“There was no sign of the caliphate back then.”

Before that he had served in the British army and was recruited as a mercenary by former comrades, he said, sharpening his knife as he spoke.

“It turned out that the British mercenary had been through a serious experience — his military unit had been surrounded, and he was among a few who survived,” reported Lenta.ru.

“The death of his peers only made him more bloodthirsty” but there was “no personal hatred involved.”

He was quoted as saying: “I know that Russia is supporting Assad and the Shias.

“Many interests came together here.

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He used to serve in the British army and was recruited as a mercenary by former comrades

“In such a situation, it is very hard to understand what’s good and what’s bad.

“And my thing is to fight, not to understand what’s happening.”

There are “certain cycles” to his life – “a trip to Syria, war, return home, a term in jail. And all over again,” said the Russian report.

“The Kurdistan Party and its Syrian branches are considered terrorist organisations in Britain, so the British mercenary regularly does a jail term.

“He’d be happy not to go home but he simply has no other opportunity to see his parents.”

The Russian journalist wrote: “In the evening, after dinner, this Brit continued sitting at a shared table and doodling in a notebook, singing to Metallica’s song For Whom the Bell Tolls playing in his headphones.

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He was pictured but not identified by a Russian media outlet

“Among his drawings, I saw an image of a samurai or ‘God of Death’, as the Brit called him.”

At the camp were Turkish Kurds from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK along with mercenaries who came to fight Isis.

But one Kurd criticised the British mercenary.

“We want to change people, not to kill them,” he said.

“If all the terrorists are shot dead, others will substitute them.

“It is not right to come here just because of desire to kill.”