Daughter of Michigan Woman Killed in Syria Wants Her Body Returned to U.S.

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Family members talk about Nicole Mansfield, a 33-year-old Michigan woman, who was killed in a gun battle with pro-government forces in Syria.

As we reported Friday, friends and family of Nicole Lynn Mansfield, a 33-year-old Michigan woman, knew she was traveling abroad but were stunned to learn that she had been shot and killed in Syria in a confrontation with pro-government forces.

In an emotional interview with CNN, Ms. Mansfield’s daughter, Triana Lynn Mansfield, described the horror of seeing images of her mother’s blood-covered body from Syrian television posted on the Internet.

Now the daughter says she just wants her mother’s body brought back to the United States.

During the interview, the dead woman’s father, Greg Mansfield, said that he had been concerned for several years about his daughter, who had converted to Islam several years ago. He said that his daughter’s views on Israel had prompted him to ask the F.B.I. to revoke her passport three years ago to prevent her from traveling outside the country. He did not explain what caused his concern.

Two other people, one a British man, were also shot to death and found in the bullet-ridden car that was shown on pro-government Syrian television with a report that all three were working for opposition forces. The report said a banner of a rebel front linked to Al Qaeda was found in the car. The third person was not identified.

Syrian Television report on the gun battle.

In addition to showing a copy of Ms. Mansfield’s Michigan driver’s license, Syrian TV showed the British passport of a 22-year-old man, identified as Ali Almanasfi, born in London in June 1990. The British Foreign Office said it was investigating and had not verified his identify, according to the Guardian.

Luke Harding of The Guardian reported that Mr. Almanasfi grew up in West London, the son of conservative Sunnis from Damascus.

He spent time in jail on an assault charge, where he became more interested in Islam and the conflict in Syria, Mr. Harding reported. After his release in late 2011, Mr. Almanasfi talked about going to Syria to fight the Assad government. He disappeared from his mother’s London apartment earlier this year, prompting his family to file a police report.

Ms. Mansfield left the Detroit area a few months ago, said a friend, Janice Wilson, 32, of Detroit, but was in regular contact until recently with her mother, her daughter, and a few friends.

Triana Lynn Mansfield posted on a Facebook page called R.I.P. Nicole Lynn Mansfield that her mother had told her that because her identification had been stolen she could not come home right away. She said she now believed that Syrian government forces had set her mother up and killed her because she was American.

My mother was NOT a terrorist. She went there for a reason that is unknown. But believe this-SHE WAS FORCED TO STAY. She told me she would be back in a week. Last time my family talked to her she said someone stole her ID. How did her ID end up on national television? They forced her to stay and die for media publicity

In Michigan, Ms. Mansfield and Ms. Wilson converted to Islam at about the same time about six years ago. They studied the Koran at a mosque in Flint, Ms. Wilson said, where they shared an apartment and worked as home health care aides. She said they both embraced the religion and became Muslims as a path to inner peace.

“She was a good person, a peaceful person,” Ms. Wilson said on Friday, still shocked by the news that F.B.I. agents brought Ms. Mansfield’s family on Thursday. “She is all about peace. She is all about helping people. I don’t understand this. She texted me about three and a half weeks ago and said she was coming home.”

In 2010, Ms. Mansfield met a man online, an Arab immigrant who was studying engineering at Gannon University in Erie, Pa.

According to records, Ms. Mansfield and Ayman Bafil were married in Erie in July 2010. Ms. Mansfield’s grandmother, Carole, told reporters she believed that her daughter had married the man to help him get his green card. They were divorced a little more than a year later, records show.

Mr. Bafil, who could not be reached for comment, married another woman in Kalamazoo, Mich., later that year and gave an address in Eugene, Ore.

Ms. Wilson said that the Arab uprising in early 2011 had fueled Ms. Mansfield’s interest in the politics of the Middle East and North Africa. She said that she would openly discuss her concerns about the plight of the people in Syria but never indicated she would join rebel forces.

Ms. Wilson said they had traveled to Washington in 2011 to support the Arab uprising in Egypt.

Officials from the F.B.I. and the State Department said that they were investigating and had no comment.

On Facebook, Triana Lynn Mansfield said that she just wanted her mother’s body brought to the United States. “My mother is gone but she will never be forgotten, she is where she wants/needs to be because she’s serving a higher purpose,” she wrote. “I just want her home, so we can bury her the way she wanted to be buried.”