Foreigners join fight against IS in Raqqa

(18 Jul 2017) US-backed Syrian fighters are fighting Islamic State group (IS) militants in the heart of Raqqa, the extremists' self-styled capital, as scores of civilians flee areas controlled by the group.
Hunkered down in outposts on the front lines, a number of US and British volunteer fighters are taking increasingly forward roles in the decisive battle for the Syrian city of Raqqa.
A former foreign exchange broker at the City in London, Macer Gifford first joined the Kurdish PYD (People's Protection Units) fighting in Syria in 2014. Moved by the pictures he saw on TV of displaced Yazidis in Iraq and Syria, Gifford says he was upset with what he considered the US and the UK's failure to act. After three years and several major battles, he is one of the many foreign volunteers now fighting alongside US-backed fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces on the front-lines of Raqqa.
"I wanted to fight ISIS, but also to draw attention," he said. "It's not America or Britain who are going to liberate the country. If we support these locals then we can build a democratic framework." The achievement, he says, is to "see a much more peaceful future for Syria."
Gifford has been spending a month in a frontline position with Christian Syriac fighters, like two other American comrades.
Both from California, Kevin Howard and Taylor Hudson have past experience in the French foreign legion. They teamed up as a sniping unit with the Syriac Military Council few hundreds meters away from IS positions.
Hudson referred to Raqqa as the "Berlin of today", comparing the fight against IS to the fight against Nazism in the second world war.
"This is chance for me to absolutely go to the heart of darkness and grab it and get rid of it," Howard, who also served with the US Army in Iraq from 2006 to 2008, said. His decision to join the fight came after IS claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015.
As IS state crumbles in Syria, British and US volunteer fighters are also losing their lives in the gruelling fight, boosted by a number of foreign fighters on the other side of the battlefield. Two American and one British volunteers were killed in early July during battles on the Raqqa front.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...