Kimberley Taylor: First British woman fighting ISIS

A suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the 27-year-old, Kimberley Taylor, splattering his blood and guts on her body during a terrifying firefight.
She was asleep in her camp near Raqqa when jihadis launched a 4am raid on her group's base.
The maths graduate, from Blackburn in Lancashire, grabbed her gun and raced to the frontline where she was confronted by the ISIS fighter who detonated his suicide vest just a few yards in front of her.
The bloody encounter left Miss Taylor, fighting with the Kurdish Women's Defence Force, traumatised, feeling sick and unable to eat for several days.
Miss Taylor also reveal how a female sniper continued fire at the suicide bomber who covered her in blood even after the sniper had been shot in the arm.
'Only when the Daesh blew himself up and a piece of shrapnel lodged in her head did she stop fighting,' Miss Taylor told Open Democracy.
'We put up an incredible fight for three hours. Just two friends slightly injured... I'm so proud to call these people my comrades.'
Miss Taylor left her comfortable life in the UK for war torn Syria in March last year, when her friend's village in the northern Syria was ransacked by ISIS fighters. She could be prosecuted under the Terrorism Act 2006, which makes it a crime for Britons to be involved in a conflict abroad.

Miss Taylor often praises the women she is fighting with in northern Syria for their bravery and devotion to defeating ISIS but she has criticised US forces, who have been targeting ISIS with airstrikes, for being reckless.
'They don't fight carefully like we do and may cause unnecessary civilian deaths,' she said.
Miss Taylor, who goes by the nom de guerre Zilan Dilmar, has previously claimed that she is willing to give her life for the cause in Syria.

She went on: 'It's for the whole world, for humanity and all oppressed people, everywhere.
'It's not just [ISIS] killing and raping. It's its systematic mental and physical torture on a scale we can't imagine.'
Miss Taylor, whose Facebook page says she lives in Al Hasakah, Syria, quit a second degree in political science at Stockholm University to work for a Swedish socialist newspaper in northern Syria.
She became captivated by the Kurdish female fighters' ideology of Democratic Confederalism, a mixture of anti-capitalism and feminism.

Her father Phil, a 57-year-old former teacher from Prescot, Merseyside, said he was worried for his daughter's safety but proud of her for standing up for her beliefs.

Raqqa is the terror group's stronghold but ISIS still holds significant territory in Syria.
It seized Palmyra and its ancient ruins on December 11 and has maintained its grip ever since.
U.N. planning to convene peace talks in Geneva on February 20, hopes for success hinge on the intentions of the three powers closest to the conflict - Turkey, Russia, and Iran - who together pledged to guarantee the tenuous cease-fire.