British Islamic State fighter from Coventry reportedly killed in Iraq

A British national, Ali Kalantar, 19, has reportedly died fighting for Islamic State.

Kalantar, from Coventry, was known as Ali al-Farsi or Ali al-Afghani, and is believed to have been killed two days ago in Tikrit, Iraq. According to one of his fellow fighters, Ali was killed taking part in an IS attack on Tikrit University.

He is the 32nd British national known to have died fighting in Iraq and Syria.

Tributes from his fellow IS fighters and supporters have been pouring on social media. A canadian fighter, knwon as Abu Turaaab al-Kanadi wrote: "One of my very good friends has got Shahadah (martyrdom) in the asault on Tikrit University. Ali al-Afghani (@AliAlfarsii) Make dua'a (prayers) for him."

Al-Kanadi describes Kalantar as a "beautiful brother"and revealed that he, Abu Dujana al-Britani and Kalantar had fought together at the besieged Syrian city of Kobani.

On his Facebook page, Kalantar wrote that he had no intention of returning to the UK, despite members of his family travelling to Turkey to try and find him.

He wrote: "Just to proof [sic] how much I want to come back to US, soon you would see a video of me burning my passport which has less value then my toilet tissue paper".

Kalantar and his family were originally from Afghanistan and settled in the UK in 2005. Prior to joining Islamic State (Isis), Ali was planning on becoming a student at Coventry University, studying computer science.

According to Shiraz Maher, senior fellow at the Institute Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, Kalantar left the UK in March 2014. He travelled with two friends, Rashid Amani and Mohamed Hadi. The left their home city of Coventry, via Birmingham and Frankfurt, before reaching Turkey. They crossed over the Turkish-Syrian border and joined fighters in Aleppo.

Whilst in Syria, Ali was married to a female British national, known as Umm Jafar al-Britaniyah. She announced his death on her Twitter page. She had previously posted a picture of his AK-47, which she had decorated with a hand-painted camouflage design.

Kalantar was active on social media, using the twitter handle @AliAlFarsiii and the now suspended Twitter handle @KafirsNightmare. On his suspended account, he posted photos of Syrian children dressed in military uniform, holding his AK-47.