Australia detains Canadian fighting with Kurds in Syria

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Australian authorities at Brisbane airport detained Canadian fighter Robert Somerville, who joined Kurdish fighters in Syria battling Islamic State and was on a trip to visit his family in Central Queensland.

Speaking from the Brisbane Immigration Transit Centre, Somerville told the ABC that authorities had questioned him about anti-ISIS fighter Ashley Dyball, who was interviewed by the Australian Federal Police after being deported from Germany to Melbourne late last year.

Dyball was released without charge and has declined to speak publicly since then.

Somerville had spent parts of 2015 in Syria fighting alongside Kurdish fighters of People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Australian authorities told him that his visa is canceled because Somerville didn’t mention his Kurdish name given by his fellow Kurdish fighters in Syria when he was asked whether he had other names.

"Under the section 'do you have any names other than the one above' I put down 'no' because I have no other legal names, I haven't changed my name so there's no legal document with a different name for me," ABC quoted Somerville as saying.

"But they are insisting that my Kurdish name that I received in Syria, because I didn't put that name down, I was open to still having my visa cancelled,” he explained.

Australia is a member of the anti-ISIS coalition forces fighting the radicals in Iraq and Syria, but according to the country’s rules individuals joining local fighters would be questioned when returning home.