Serving British soldier joins Kurdish fight against ISIS
Published time: February 20, 2015 11:30
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Members of the Kurdish security forces take part during an intensive security deployment after clashes with militants of the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in Jalawla, Diyala province. (Reuters/Stringer)
Tags Arms, Army, Conflict, Iraq, Military, Syria, Terrorism, UK, Violence
A British man currently serving in the Army has travelled to the Middle East to join Kurdish troops fighting the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
‘United Continent’: European volunteers fighting Kiev troops in Eastern Ukraine
Published time: August 30, 2014 11:02
Edited time: September 06, 2014 09:57
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Screenshot from RT video
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Trends RT inside Ukraine, Ukraine turmoil
Tags Arms, Army, Conflict, Europe, Intelligence, Military, NATO, Paula Slier, Politics, Security, Ukraine, Violence, War
European volunteers are streaming into Ukraine to join the fighting on both sides. While Kiev’s forces are beefed up with mercenaries from private military companies, Europeans have also come to defend the rebel Donbass region of their own free will.
One of the latest reinforcements of anti-Kiev troops in Eastern Ukraine are four French ex-serviceman who have come to fight this war, thousands of kilometers from home.
“It’s our war. It’s everybody’s war, it’s every European’s war,” Guillaume, a French fighter in Ukraine defending the Donbass region, told RT’s Paula Slier.
French fighter Guillaume. Screenshot from RT video
ISIS killers were ‘high-fiving each other’ after execution – US volunteer with Kurdish troops
Published time: February 17, 2015 02:04
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Kurdish Peshmerga fighters celebrate atop an army vehicle as they move towards the Syrian town of Kobani from the border town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province (Reuters / Yannis Behrakis)
Trends Islamic State, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
Tags Conflict, Syria, Terrorism, USA
A Florida native told RT that he followed ‘God’s call’ when he joined Kurdish fighters in the north of Syria to battle the Islamic State (formerly ISIS). He is one of dozens of westerners who have come to the region to fight against the terror group.
Caught: NATO Mercenaries Fighting for Kiev
Posted by Veterans Today on February 12, 2015
OSCE shown foreign weapons recovered from Donetsk airport — DPR representative
Representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic at the Minsk talks says the Ukrainian army has used mercenaries from the very beginning of the force operation in eastern Ukraine
MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has offered no reaction to the fact that a lot of foreign-made weapons were found at the Donetsk airport after the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops, Denis Pushilin, a representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) at the Minsk talks, said on Monday.
“The weapons were not just found but demonstrated at a meeting of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) and representatives of the OSCE and Ukraine,” he told the Russian television Channel One. “They offered no reactions, the only thing they said was ‘we will write it down in the protocol’ and nothing followed.”
In his words, the Ukrainian army has used mercenaries from the very beginning of the force operation in eastern Ukraine. “There is little doubt they are there now,” he said.
Read More - http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/02/12/caught-nato-mercenaries-fighting-for-kiev/
Int'l anti-ISIS brigade: Westerners flock to fight for Kurds
Published time: November 23, 2014 14:46
Edited time: November 24, 2014 05:44
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Briton Jamie Read (left) reportedly fighting with Kurdish militia in Syria against the Islamic State. Photo from facebook.com
Trends Islamic State
Tags Conflict, Crime, Iraq, Military, Syria
People from the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and other western nations are fighting in Syria and Iraq, where Islamic State militants want to create a state of their own. But they're not jihadists – they're going into battle on the side of the Kurds.
The latest report about western volunteers, many of them with military backgrounds, comes from the UK. James Hughes, a former British infantryman with three tours in Afghanistan, has joined the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, the YPG, to fight against the Islamists.
His friend Jamie Read, a French army-trained soldier, is with Hughes, according to a report in the UK's Observer newspaper. Both were apparently recruited by an American called Jordan Matson on behalf of the “Lions of Rojava”, an YPG media outlet.
Hughes and Read are among many westerners, who have gone to the turbulent Middle East region to join the fight against the IS, formerly known as ISIS, and Kurdish militias.
There are Americans Jordan Matson, an early US Army discharge, and Jeremy Woodard, an Army veteran with tours to Afghanistan and Iraq. A group of six unidentified Canadian special forces veterans reportedly fighting for Iraqi Kurds Peshmerga. And Gill Rosenberg, a Canadian-Israeli woman credited to be the first westerner to join YPG’s female squads.
Read More - http://rt.com/news/208083-westerners-isis-kurds-syria/
20,000 Foreign Fighters Flock To Syria, Iraq
Posted: 02/10/2015 4:52 pm EST Updated: 5 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Foreign fighters are streaming into Syria and Iraq in unprecedented numbers to join the Islamic State or other extremist groups, including at least 3,400 from Western nations among 20,000 from around the world, U.S. intelligence officials say in an updated estimate of a top terrorism concern.
Intelligence agencies now believe that as many as 150 Americans have tried and some have succeeded in reaching in the Syrian war zone, officials told the House Homeland Security Committee in testimony prepared for delivery on Wednesday. Some of those Americans were arrested en route, some died in the area and a small number are still fighting with extremists.
The testimony and other data were obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.
Nick Rasmussen, chief of the National Counterterrorism Center, said the rate of foreign fighter travel to Syria is without precedent, far exceeding the rate of foreigners who went to wage jihad in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen or Somalia at any other point in the past 20 years.
U.S. officials fear that some of the foreign fighters will return undetected to their homes in Europe or the U.S. to mount terrorist attacks. At least one of the men responsible for the attack on a satirical magazine in Paris had spent time with Islamic extremists in Yemen.
Meanwhile, the White House circulated a proposal Tuesday that would have Congress authorize the U.S. military to fight Islamic State terrorists over the next three years. A formal request for legislation is expected on Wednesday.
Also at the White House, President Barack Obama praised Kayla Jean Mueller, the young American whose death was confirmed Tuesday. Mueller died while in Islamic State hands, though the group blamed a Jordanian airstrike, and Obama said, "No matter how long it takes, the United States will find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible for Kayla's captivity and death."
As for foreign fighters, officials acknowledge it has been hard to track the Americans and Europeans who have made it to Syria, where the Islamic State group is the dominant force trying to overthrow the government of President Bashar Assad. The U.S. Embassy in Syria is closed, and the CIA has no permanent presence on the ground.
"Once in Syria, it is very difficult to discern what happens there," according to Wednesday's prepared testimony of Michael Steinbach, the FBI's assistant director for counterterrorism. "This lack of clarity remains troubling."
The estimate of 20,000 fighters, from 90 countries, is up from 19,000, Rasmussen will tell the House committee, according to prepared testimony. The number of Americans or U.S. residents who have gone or tried to go is up to 150 from 50 a year ago and 100 in the fall.
Rep. Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who chairs the committee, said in his prepared remarks that the Syrian war had created "the largest convergence of Islamist terrorists in world history." Sustained bombing by a U.S.-led coalition has not stopped the inflow, he noted.
McCaul's committee staff compiled from public sources a list of 18 U.S. citizens or residents who joined or attempted to join the Islamic State group, and 18 others who tried to or succeeded in joining other violent Islamic groups. The list includes three Chicago teens and three Denver teens who were radicalized and recruited online and were arrested after attempting to travel to Syria to join Islamic State fighters. It also includes Douglas McAuthur McCain, 33, a Californian who died in August while fighting with the Islamic State group near Aleppo.
U.S. intelligence officials do not make public their estimate of how many Americans currently are fighting in Syria and Iraq. In September, FBI director James Comey said it was "about a dozen."
Francis X. Taylor, who heads the Homeland Security Department's intelligence office, said in his prepared testimony for the hearing that "we are unaware of any specific, credible, imminent threat to the homeland."
However, he said, the department is concerned that Americans who join violent extremist groups in Syria "could gain combat skills, violent extremist connections and possibly become persuaded to conduct organized or 'lone-wolf' style attacks that target U.S. and Western interests. We also have become increasingly aware of the possibility that Syria could emerge as a base of operations for al-Qaida's international agenda, which could include attacks against the homeland."
Taylor said the U.S. is trying to instruct other governments on how best to track foreign fighters, including "how they can compare airline manifests and reservation data against terrorist watch lists and other intelligence about terrorist travel." He said the U.S. outpaces other countries in that effort.
The intelligence officials also discussed the possibility of homegrown attacks inspired by the Islamic State or al-Qaida but not directly connected to the groups. Rasmussen of the counterterrorism center appeared to downplay that threat, saying it "will remain at its current level resulting in fewer than 10 uncoordinated and unsophisticated plots annually from a pool of up to a few hundred individuals, most of whom are known to the (intelligence agencies) and law enforcement."
McCaul said he fears the Obama administration is blind to the looming dangers of homegrown radicalism of the kind that led to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
"We have no lead agency in charge of countering domestic radicalization and no line item for it in the budgets of key departments and agencies," he said. "I am also concerned that the few programs we do have in place are far too small to confront a challenge that has grown so quickly."
