RIGHT SPEAK: Massachusetts Man Killed While Fighting With Kurds Against ISIS

is believed to be the first American to die fighting against the Islamic State in Syria with the Kurdish group YPG

Keith Broomfield’s journey from his pastoral hometown north of Worcester to a war-ravaged Syrian village was fueled by his faith and a desire to fight evil, and informed by the troubled past he left far behind, those who knew him said Thursday.

Broomfield was quiet and kind, they said, a shy man who listened to music and read the Bible at a cultural center in Turkey where he waited patiently to be ushered onto the front lines. Killed June 3 in a battle in the village of Qentere, the 36-year-old is believed to be the first American to die fighting against the Islamic State in Syria with the Kurdish group YPG.

Keith Broomfield

“He was such a calm and innocent person to me, and I could trust him easily,” Soran Qurbani, from Turkey, said in Facebook messages. Qurbani met Broomfield in Suruc, Turkey, where they spent several days in February sleeping on the floor in the cramped cultural center before leaving for the Syrian battlefield.

In a brief, undated video posted online early Thursday morning, Broomfield identified himself and, smiling sheepishly, explains why he joined the fight.

“Keith Broomfield. I’m here as Gelhat Rumet,” he said, citing his nom de guerre while seated on a makeshift bench. “I’m here to do what I can to help Kurdistan. With everything that’s been going on, it seems like the right thing to do.”

Broomfield’s father, Tom

YPG, also known as the People’s Protection Units, consists of armed Kurdish forces fighting against the Islamic State, succesfully pushing back the militants from Kobani and surrounding Syrian villages in recent months.