The mother of an Australian killed in Syria said she only realised where he was when she received a text message.
Canberra woman Amanda Johnston said her son Ashley, 28, an army reservist who had served in the Solomon Islands, wanted to do a job where he was helping people.
"He sent me a text. He'd been travelling overseas and we keep in touch and talk practically every day and then he sent a text to say that he was in the Middle East doing humanitarian work," she told ABC TV.
In fact he was fighting with Kurdish forces against Islamic State inside Syria.
It's believed he died on February 23 in a clash with IS forces in Rojava, a Syrian Kurdish region near the border with Turkey.
He's the first Australian and perhaps the first westerner to die fighting with Kurdish forces. Another three Australians are believed to be fighting against IS with various militia forces.
Mrs Johnston said her son's comrades had described what happened to her son when their vehicle was ambushed.
"The ISIS were closing in and Ash jumped out of the vehicle to, I guess, draw them away and he was shot. But it gave the others in the vehicle the chance to get out and he saved their lives," she said.
Although fighting against IS, Mr Johnston could have faced prosecution for serving with a foreign irregular force, as could the estimated 90 Australians fighting with IS.
Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan said they were committing a criminal offence, although there were some other considerations.
"The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions needs to be satisfied that it's in the best public interest to run a prosecution," he said.
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