Hairdresser left his job to fight against Islamic State insurgency

A hairdresser from South London has become the first Briton known to have travelled to Iraq to fight alongside Kurdish forces against the Islamic State.

Mama Kurda of Croydon, South London, runs a hair salon in Clapham. But the 26-year-old is now fighting with the Kurds against the militant group whose savagery has shocked the world.

And although he's proud to be British, he says he's ready to kill any of the estimated 500 Britons who have travelled to the region to join the Islamic State insurgency.

The UK has been shamed by the recent video circulated by Islamic State that all but shows a militant with a London accent beheading captive American photojournalist James Foley.

'I have to show the world there is a British citizen fighting against them,' Mr Kurda told the Daily Mirror.