An Australian man killed by Islamic State in Syria has been named in reports as former Army reservist Ashley Kent Johnston.
While his name has not been officially confirmed, Fairfax Media has reported that the president of the Australian Kurdish Association, Gulfer Olan, had confirmed Ashley Johnston had died.
Ms Olan was reportedly trying to contact the 28-year-old's family.
A Facebook post by the People's Protection Units, also known as YPG, on a page dedicated to foreign fighters, said he was known on the battlefield as Heval Bagok Serhed.
"We the YPG regretfully inform you of the death of one of our bravest western fighters Heval Bagok Serhed. He is the first western fighter to be martyred fighting the evil of ISIS," it said.
The post (below) said his true identity could not yet be revealed due to security reasons.
The man was fighting with a group called The Lions of Rojava, which is believed to have been set up a year ago to recruit volunteer fighters from foreign countries, it said.
The post also laid out some of the details of his death.
"He was taken from us in a heroic assault on ISIS positions in a small village near Shingal," it said.
"They where massively outnumbered and outgunned ..."
The man's nationality was announced in the early hours of Thursday by UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It said the fatality occurred near Tal Hamis in Hasakeh province, Syria.
The monitoring group had reported the fighter's death on Tuesday, but was unable to confirm his nationality until now.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said dozens of Westerners had joined the YPG's ranks.
"There are foreigners fighting on all sides of Syria's war," he told AFP.
The YPG units are believed to include people from Canada, the United States, Britain, Spain, Holland, Austria, France as well as Australia, many of whom have previous army experience.
Last month, Northern Territory ALP president Matthew Gardiner had his party membership suspended amid reports he had gone to Iraq or Syria with aim of joining Kurdish militants fighting IS.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was aware of reports about the Australian man.
However, its capacity to confirm the reports was limited.
"Due to the extremely dangerous security situation, consular assistance is no longer available within Syria," a spokesperson said.
The department said any Australians fighting with non-state militia in Syria or Iraq should leave the conflict zone.
