Up to a dozen Irish citizens are fighting Isis in Syria as Kurdish forces move towards Raqqa. An Irish recruit encountered by The Sunday Times last week said he had been sleeping outside to avoid airstrikes, as Isis defends their de facto capital.
James, a recent media graduate from Cork who asked that his surname not be published, said he had joined an international division of the Kurdish YPG in the hope of playing a role in liberating Raqqa, which has been under Isis control since August 2014. An attack on the city, about 200 kilometres east of Aleppo, is expected in the coming months.
James said he was eager to see action but was currently only in training. “I’m here with about 20 international fighters,” he said.
“Depending on where they want us to go, we might see some dangerous situations. Or we might be folding blankets in the rear. Who knows?”
He said that he had encountered several Irish since arriving in Syria. “They’re dotted around the place,” he said. Many of the Irish fighters, including James, have no family ties to Syria or the Middle East.
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The young Cork man, who has been in Syria for nearly a month, said he is learning Kurdish in the YPG academy. “We usually wake up between 4am and 4:30am, then we go on guard duty between five and six.
“After that we get history classes, ideology classes and language classes. For now we’re not doing too much with weapons but later on we’ll do military training,” he said.
One of the first people James met when he crossed the Iraqi border illegally was another Irishman from the midlands.
“We arrived across the border late at night,” he said. “I travelled with a French guy and an English guy. I woke up and was cleaning my boots when a guy with an Irish accent said, ‘Do you want coffee?’
“It was really odd. He’s been here for a while and seemed excited to join his unit at the front.”
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Every night the fighters sleep outside to avoid being detected by Turkish airstrikes and drones, which last month killed several YPG fighters in the same area.
“We’re all pretty terrified,” he said. “Every night we see Turkish and US drones.
“I’m no Superman, but I feel like it’s something I have to do. The Manchester attacks makes it more important. We’re trying to put an end to those attacks.”