The Kurds fighting the so-called Islamic State are attracting combatants from all over the world. Some head into battle out of conviction. Others want to make a buck.
DAQUQ, Iraq — The so-called Islamic State has recruited copious cannon fodder from around the world, along with quite a few ferocious fighters. But its toughest opponents on the ground, the Kurds of Iraq and Syria, are attracting Western ex-soldiers for their ranks who are determined to see the self-proclaimed “caliphate” not only “degraded,” as Washington puts it, but destroyed.
At a Kurdish Peshmerga base on the fluid battle lines outside the ethnically and religiously mixed Iraqi city of Kirkuk, three American fighters sat down with The Daily Beast. We were less than half a mile from the black flags of ISIS, as the would-be Islamic State is widely known, and the soldiers asked that I not give too many details about their identities. They worry that their families could become special targets for a fanatical fighting force whose battlefields, like its targets, seem limitless.
Dressed in a Peshmerga uniform, Jeremy is a compact, affable 28-year-old-guy from Mississippi who fought with U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. He’s been fighting alongside the Pesh for the last six months.
Leo is a tall and direct 38-year-old Texan who worked security for private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mel’s background also is in military security contracting and he says he served for a while with an army from a European country, but he won’t specify which. Mel’s a little eccentric. At 41, the Colorado native sports a pair of carefully pointed canine teeth—fangs, in fact— and a goatee that gives off a strong goth-metal vibe.
For two months Leo and Mel have been with the Peshmerga, the erstwhile guerrilla army that now makes up the autonomous armed forces of Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government, and both are dressed in the gray flannel shirts and cargo pants often associated with private security contractors, but they and Jeremy all claim to be volunteers who are not receiving any kind of salary.
As we sit in the comfortable field office of Peshmerga Maj. Gen. Karwan Asaad, with Kurdish TV playing on a flat screen in the background, the hazy battle lines feel bizarrely distant despite a network of frontline dugouts only a few hundred yards away. But the Americans are anything but complacent.
Brett, a 28-year-old U.S. national who fights jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group alongside Dwekh Nawsha, a Christian militia whose name is an Assyrian-language phrase conveying self-sacrifice, poses for a photograph on February 5, 2015, in the northern Iraqi town of Al-Qosh, located 35 km north of Mosul. (Safin Hamed/Getty)
“ISIS are tough, real tough,” Jeremy says with his Mississippi twang. With fog settling in, he says it’s prime conditions for ISIS to make a move. It’s a different kind of warfare from what he saw when he was with the U.S. occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. He sees ISIS not so much as an insurgency as an invasion force. “It’s very different fighting a group that’s trying to take over,” he says.
The three men say their main assignments are guarding high-ranking Kurdish military officials and transporting jihadist prisoners in Peshmerga custody. It’s work Mel and Leo became well accustomed to when hired as contractors in earlier American wars. Here, Mel says he’s transported ISIS prisoners that come from Chechnya, Ireland, France, Germany, the UK, The U.S. and Canada, but maintains he is barred from speaking with them and has no idea what happens once they are handed over to Kurdish guards.
The three say, without specifics, they have received U.S. assurances they won’t be prosecuted when returning home, but that to be sure requires dealing with a lot of government clearances and maintaining a low profile. According to Jeremy, a lot of his ex-Army buddies are itching to get to Iraq and join the anti-ISIS fight, but he says many have been blocked because they make those plans public on social media.
The three say they have no interest in internal Kurdish politics and that even their sympathies for the Kurdish national struggle are secondary to their goal of contributing to the defeat of ISIS. They doubt the capabilities or commitment of the Iraqi Army and see the Kurds as the first defense against the spread of an American enemy.
Leo believes that if ISIS isn’t defeated, he could end up fighting its militants on battlefields around the world, and he is seriously disappointed in the way the Obama administration has handled the rise of the would-be caliphate. He says the failure of U.S. policy is a central reason he felt the need to join the Pesh.
Jeremy says he was uncomfortable sitting at home and watching the news of ISIS beheadings, mass killings and enslavements and felt obligated to use his military training and skills to support those fighting the jihadists.
For Mel, it was a matter of feeling disheartened by the large numbers of foreigners joining ISIS. He became convinced he had to join the Kurds.
The emergence of militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) is caused by Israeli atrocities which oppress Muslims and the Muslim governments’ inability to solve their problems, says Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
During an interview with Sky News presenter Adam Boulton early this morning, the former prime minister said the evolution of terrorist groups such as Isis was due to their frustration over the state government’s failure to defend Muslims.
“From what they see, the governments of Muslim countries have not been able to do anything about their problems, particularly over Israel, for example.
“So, people tend to take law in their own hands,” he said.
Dr Mahathir, an outspoken critic of the Zionist state, added that it did not mean he supported Isis.
He acknowledged that the group’s violent reactions were caused by the cruelty shown by the Israeli regime itself.
“No, it is not justifiable at all. It is all about frustration that is resulting in violence,” he said when asked whether it was fair for Isis to be set up because of the Israeli establishment.
Dr Mahathir described the struggles of Isis as not in accordance with Islamic teachings but rather due to mere dissatisfaction, especially in the face of powerful countries.
“I know it is very unfortunate. But it is not the teaching of Islam. It is the expression of their frustration over something that they find themselves unable to resolve, because they are up against a powerful nation,” he said.
Dr Mahathir (pic, left) said Muslims around the world feel they were oppressed and under attack.
“But the main thing is, there is this feeling that Muslims generally are being oppressed, their countries are being invaded, and thousands of their people have been bombed and killed. So how do they react to this?” he added.
Isis was formed in 2013 in Iraq.
Its members comprise thousands of local and foreign jihadists and former military men who served under the reign of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
Media reports say Malaysians have also joined their struggle and some were killed during the battles in both Syria and Iraq.
Malaysian authorities are actively keeping an eye on the activities of those who visited the Arab countries to join Isis.
LONDON – British police launched an appeal on Friday to trace three London schoolgirls who are believed to be making their way to Syria, having flown to Turkey earlier this week.
The three friends, two aged 15 and one 16, left their east London homes on Tuesday and traveled to Gatwick airport where they caught a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul without telling their families.
Police said they were working with Turkish authorities to try to find the girls and bring them home.
“We still think there’s a possibility they’re in Turkey and that’s why we’re having the appeal,” Richard Walton from London police’s counter terrorism command told reporters on Friday.
Turkish Airlines declined to say whether the girls had traveled on one of its flights. A spokesman for the airline said in an emailed statement that apart from checking visas the company was not responsible for dealing with pre-flight security issues.
The three girls, two of whom were named as British nationals Shamima Begum and Kadiza Sultana, were pupils at the Bethnal Green Academy.
They are friends with a fourth teenage girl from the same school who police believe is already in Syria, having traveled to Turkey in December.
Their families were surprised and devastated by the disappearance of the girls, Walton said.
Security forces estimate some 600 British Muslims have traveled to Syria to join the conflict there, some of them with the militant Sunni Islamist group Islamic State.
Around half have since returned, and dozens have been arrested in Britain under anti-terrorism legislation.
The Islamic State (Isis) propaganda machine has published photos of its militants in Libya burning musical instruments they said were confiscated in line with the radical group’s interpretation of Sharia law.
Black-clad gunmen are seen setting fire to a pile of drums, brass and woodwind instruments at a countryside location and then watching the fire burning in images posted online by an Isis media branch.
An accompanying message claimed the instrument-burning took place in eastern Libya, possibly near the city of Derna.
Under the jihadi group’s rules, instrumental music is banned as well as what it claims are other un-Islamic activities such as smoking and drinking alcohol.
In September, it was reported that Isis had imposed a new school curriculum in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, banning art and music as well as all classes on history, literature and Christianity.
Libya has been embroiled in fighting since the overthrow of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Battling for control of the country currently involves pro-government forces, Libya Dawn, an umbrella group including radical and moderate Islamists, and Isis local offshoots that recently infiltrated several coastal cities.
The group’s expansion into the Mediterranean country has sparked international alarm.
Libya’s Foreign Minister Mohammed al Dairi has called for an emergency session of the UN Security Council to lift an arms embargo and allow his government to fight back at Isis.
KUALA LUMPUR (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK): Police have detained a 14-year-old girl suspected of trying to join the Islamic State terror group.
The girl, who is from Muar, was arrested by the Bukit Aman Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division before she could board a Cairo-bound flight at KL International Airport at about 7.30pm on Tuesday.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the girl was planning to marry a 22-year-old Malaysian student in Cairo.
Both of them would then go to Istanbul before securing passage to Syria.
“We discovered that she had been in contact with two Malaysian militants based in Syria. We will investigate further to uncover the mastermind behind the recruitment of Malaysian girls for the IS,” he said in a statement yesterday.
“We will not allow Malaysia to be used as a training ground or hideout for terrorists and militants. Anyone in support or in league with any terrorist will be detained.”
The girl was arrested under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012.
Intelligence sources said the girl’s would-be husband is a student at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University.
It is learnt that the girl, who studied at a tahfiz institute in Shah Alam, had attempted to go to Cairo without her family’s consent. She had even threatened to kill herself if her parents did not let her go.
“The girl was hard-headed when interrogated by Bukit Aman officers,” a source said.
The latest arrest brings the number of people linked to terrorism arrested in Malaysia to 68 since February 2013.
Among those arrested were navy and air force personnel and civil servants, including an Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry officer.
Sources said the trend of Malaysians joining the IS was continuing despite the arrests.
Just last month, a young Malaysian couple, with their infant son, managed to elude the authorities to go to Syria to join the terror group.
“They went to Bangkok before taking a flight to Istanbul. They then entered Syria via a land route,” a source said.
It is believed that the family went to Syria late last month.
Bukit Aman is still hunting five known militants who are believed to have links to IS and the Abu Sayyaf terror group based in the Philippines.
Khalid urged anyone with information on the militants to contact the nearest police station or the counter-terrorism division at 03-2266 7010 or 011-2104 6850, or e-mail [email protected].
