Canadian/Israeli Joins Kurds To Fight ISIS In Syria

Another foreigner has joined the Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in northern Syria.  This one is female.

A Canadian-born woman who emigrated to Israel and served in its military has joined Kurdish militants fighting Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) insurgents in northern Syria, Israel Radio reported on Monday.

The Canadian foreign affairs ministry would only say, “We are aware of reports that a Canadian individual has joined Kurdish forces.”

The Israel Radio report, which identified the woman as 31 years old and a resident of Tel Aviv, said she had contacted Kurdish fighters over the Internet before traveling through Iraq to train at one of their camps on the Syrian border.

“They are our brothers. They are good people. They love life, a lot like us, really,” she told the radio station.

God speed.

Source: Al Arabiya

Interview With US Army Vet Battling ISIS in Kobani

 A few brave American souls have taken it upon themselves to make the trek over to northeastern Syria to help the embattled Kurds beat ISIS.

Here is an interview with U.S. Army vet Jordan Matson, 28, who traveled from Wisconsin to Syria when he heard about the horrors ISIS was committing against Christians and minorities in Mosul, Iraq.

"For over a year, people were being slaughtered by ISIS," the 28-year-old Sturtevant, Wisconsin, native told RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq (RFI), using another acronym for IS.

"Anyone who didn't conform to their way of life could either convert, be killed, or get driven off their land. So when Mosul fell and IS drove all the Christians and minorities from the town or killed them, I thought that enough was enough and I decided to come here to fight," Matson said via Skype.

For two months, Matson has fought in northeastern Syria alongside the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). He said he decided to join the Kurdish militia after searching the Internet for a way to fight IS.

"I found that the YPG was the only force in the area that would let Christians and Muslims live in peace together so I decided to join them," he said.

Like most of the foreign Islamic jihadists, Matson entered Syria from Turkey, and has much praise for the Kurdish people. Shortly after arriving in Syria, he sustained injuries to his arm and eye during a battle in Rojava.

He related how Kurdish locals took care of him while he was recovering in the hospital. Kurdish families would visit him there, bringing food to share with him and other wounded fighters, he said.

"There's a lot of love in the community. It's something you can't really find in the United States; it's very different and I love it," Matson added.

He is now fighting in Kobani, and ever thankful for the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga troops who have entered the fray to help.

But to finish off ISIS he had this to say:

"To put an end to IS, we are going to need boots on the ground," he said. "If we increase the bombing campaign and put boots on the ground to help give support to the YPG fighters, it would help push IS back to the Syrian borders. Troops could save many lives here," Matson told RFI.

And like ISIS, Matson has been trying to recruit more fighters to help out through social media outlets. According to YPG's Kandal Amed, other foreign fighters have joined forces with the People's Protection Unit to fight ISIS.

"Foreign fighters are in all fronts with the People's Protection Units. Germans and Russians, others, wanted to be part of the new spirit that was created for the peoples of the Middle East. Among our ranks, you will find Americans, Germans, and others, all men, but we expect the arrival of foreign women, too,"

In tandem with the Iraqi Peshmerga forces, they are trying to help the Yazidis, many of whom are still stranded in Iraq's Sinjar Mountain.

"Now in the Sinjar Mountain there are families, civilians, and our comrades living in difficult humanitarian conditions. We talked to them by phone today," he said on November 5, "They suffer from the extreme cold, where during the last week about seven to eight children died because of the cold and hunger. We are now working with the Peshmerga forces to open a corridor to save these families."

RFE/RL has a video of Matson.

American Joins Kurds To Fight ISIS In Syria

Brave Brian Wilson is one of a few Americans who has been inspired to travel to Syria to help the Kurd's fight the Islamic State. He says there are Armenians, Chechens, Arabs, and Christians and Muslims fighting side by side with the YPG (Kurdish People's Protection Unit),

He says all they need are better weapons and technology. So we're arming the FSA, and other rebel Syrian groups, and those arms are probably winding up in the hands of ISIS, and used to fight the Kurds.

Video interview of him on VOA.

ISIS Video Threatens Turkey While Turkey Does Nothing To Save Kobani Border Town

One would think that Turkey would be more actively involved in aiding the Western coalition in its fight against the Islamic State (aka ISIS or ISIL), since ISIS is poised to capture the Syria/Turkey border town of Kobani. It's just a wire fence that separates Kobani from Turkey, and yet Turkey's conservative Muslim president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is doing very little to help. In fact, he's thwarting efforts by Turkish Kurds to cross the border into Syria to aid fellow Kurds in Kobani who are desperate for help.

As Turkish troops and tanks stand guard at the border, many Kurds are desperate and angry, assaulted by Turkish teargas, water cannon, and police violence.

“Isis are inhuman, they are the terrorists. The YPG is fighting not only for the Kurds and their land, but for all of humanity,” said Nesrattin from the border town of Siirt. “We’re protecting Turkey, too. Why can’t they see that? We are Turkey’s friends.”

He is surrounded by a throng of other Kurds from Siirt who have come to the border “to make sure that Turkey does not support Isis”.

But they have been. They have been allowing foreign jihadists to freely cross the border into Syria, while forcefully banning Kurdish fighters to help in Kobani.

“Why do they use so much force against us?” asked Hatice, 38. “Many of our friends were hurt in clashes with the police on this side of the border. They use teargas and water cannon, some of our cars were damaged. We’re not doing anything bad, we just want to stand here to support the YPG fighters in Kobani.”

But apparently, Erdoğan hates the Kurds more than he fears ISIS.

“Erdoğan hates the Syrian Kurds. He thinks they’re worse than Isis. Turkey has many problems with this and has always been ambiguous,” said a European diplomat involved in the effort to build an anti-Isis coalition.

That view appeared to be vindicated this week when Erdoğan equated the Kurds of Kobani and their defenders with the jihadi assailants. “It is wrong to view them differently, we need to deal with them jointly,” he told journalists in Istanbul.

That's because he considers the banned the Kurdish PKK army as terrorists.

Kobani Kurdish fighters are running out of ammunition, though, and  U.S. airstrikes are doing little to help. If and when Kobani falls, Turkey is just a stone's throw away.

Kobani from Turkey border - Photo credit Lefteris Pitarakis

According to Pentagon's Rear Adm. John Kirby, those airstrikes "are not going to save" Kobani.

"I think we all should be steeling ourselves for that eventuality," he told reporters in a daily briefing Wednesday.

"We are doing everything we can to halt" ISIS' progress against the town, but airstrikes alone cannot stop the Islamist militants, Kirby added.

"We've been very honest about the limits of air power here. The ground forces that matter the most are indigenous ground forces, and we don't have a willing, capable, effective partner on the ground inside Syria right now -- it's just a fact," he said.

Erdoğan would do well to help Kobani, considering ISIS has now posted another propaganda video, claiming Turkey is next- that ISIS will conquer Turkey and rid the country of Erdoğan.

The YouTube video here.

American Joins Kurds In Fight Against ISIS

There have been a slew of foreign fighters joining the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, quite a few from the United States, so here's a twist- three Americans, including Jordan Matson, have allegedly joined the Kurds in their battle against ISIS.

A U.S. citizen has joined Kurdish forces fighting against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants in northern Syria, a spokesman for the main Kurdish armed group in the country said on Thursday.

The Kurdish official said that Jordan Matson had joined the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), who are mainly battling advances by ISIS close to Syria’s borders with Turkey and Iraq.

“Yes it is true,” YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said in an online message. “He is fighting in the Jazaa area.”

Jazaa is a town in Syria’s northeastern Hasaka province, close to the Iraqi border and has been the site of heavy fighting between the two groups.

According to a report on Al Arabiya and Matson's Facebook Page, he's from Wisconsin, and 28-years old.

A gaming friend of Matson's, Miguel Caron, had this to say:

“He told us in the community that he was getting hired by a private army and he let us know two to three months in advance. He sent me a personal Facebook message on the 16th of September saying ‘hey boss, I’m heading to Syria.’ He told me he dropped his girlfriend and stopped looking for a job."

Matson told Caron that he had been in the military.  According to a Twitter post (that was also posted on Matson's Facebook page, although only viewable by friends) he was slightly wounded while fighting. But from the groups and likes on his page he appears to be a Christian interested in the plight of the Christians in Syria, and the YPG.

And found this on Twitter:

If all of this is true, and he and the other two are really fighting there. God speed.