Jac Holmes: Hell-bent on helping battling the cruelty of IS

Jac Holmes was angry when we first met him. He hadn't been in Syria for very long but he already felt the experience had changed him. It wasn't hard to understand why.

He'd left his job as an IT worker and his home in Bournemouth at just 22 and been involved in some of the fiercest fighting against IS in Syria.

He'd seen sex slaves and the markets that IS had set up to sell the women; he'd seen fellow fighters killed and discovered the phones left behind by the militants filled with amputations and torture. He'd come up against a resilient, violent enemy determined to die.

:: British sniper who fought IS killed by landmine in Raqqa

He was fired up with fury about what he saw as the Western apathy to what was happening in Syria - and the former painter and decorator was hell-bent on doing whatever he could to help those who were fighting the cruelty of IS.

He was also reticent towards the media, suspicious and mindful that the foreign fighters like himself often attracted attention from journalists whilst their colleagues in the ranks of the Kurdish fighters, did not.

Nevertheless, this quietly spoken young man spoke with fervour and a conviction that he was doing the right thing.

He spoke angrily at what he perceived to be the British Government's inaction towards the events in Syria.

This, like so many of the foreign fighters we spoke to, appeared to be what had driven them to flee their homes and lives and take up arms against the Islamic militants.

"Daesh [another name for IS] is not a problem just for Syria - or Iraq", Jac told us, "but for the world".

It is a sentiment echoed by many of those who've been fighting with the mainly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces.

:: Raqqa lies in ruins after hard-fought victory

When we were there (cameraman Martin Smith, producer Nick Ludlam, medic Martin Vowles) just a few weeks ago, we were on the front line with the SDF as they took on the final IS stronghold in the National Hospital.

The fighting was fierce and the demolition of Raqqa, total.

Yet there were very few places as the troops moved forward trying to ensnare the final IS fighters, that had been cleared of booby-traps, mines or trigger bombs. They were everywhere.

It was an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) which is believed to be what killed Mr Holmes, a hidden mine which he inadvertently triggered.

The city is littered with them, now many hidden beneath piles of rubble and shattered homes and offices.

The fighting may well be over in Raqqa for the time being, but the very dangerous work of making it possible for people to return is only just beginning and it won't be completed very quickly.

For a start, there are just not the numbers needed to do this kind of precise and dangerous work.

There isn't the machinery or equipment in the city to enable any wide scale clearance - and the troops are exhausted after months of fighting an intense and dangerous urban battle.

Many of the foreign fighters we spoke to warned of the challenges which lie ahead for Raqqa and this part of Syria.

"The issue will not be driving out IS," Macer Gifford told us, (a former banker from Cambridge who'd joined the SDF), "it will be what follows."

Mr Holmes' death highlights in all its horrible finality just how much there is yet to be done.

He was one of the longest-serving volunteer foreign fighters in the SDF.

He metamorphosed from a man "who fixed computers" (his own words) to a trusted member of a four-man sniper unit, who spoke fluent Kurdish and often acted as translator for many of the other foreign volunteers.

He'd witnessed some of the fiercest fighting by the SDF against the extremists and had an incredible respect for the camaraderie and loyalty of the Kurdish troops who fed him, looked after him and welcomed him into their ranks.

When he walked into the stadium in Raqqa along with the men and women he'd fought alongside to free the city from IS, he must have thought he'd done his job and his home was within sight.

He spoke to his mother just on Sunday about his plans to be home for Christmas.

His death will have shocked the very many people he knew in Syria and those who came to know him through his Facebook postings and television and newspaper interviews, coming as it did days after the fighting in Raqqa was declared over.

As Jac himself said many times: "It's the ideology of IS which needs to be tackled. You can't kill that."