Westerners join Iraqi Christian militia to fight Islamic State militants

[Valin]

Reuters:

Monday, Feb 16, 2015

 

A foreign female fighter who has joined the Iraqi Christian militia Dwekh Nawsha to fight against Islamic State militants sits at the office of the Assyrian political party in Dohuk, northern Iraq February 13, 2015.

 

DUHOK, Iraq - Saint Michael, the archangel of battle, is tattooed across the back of a US army veteran who recently returned to Iraq and joined a Christian militia fighting Islamic State in what he sees as a biblical war between good and evil. Brett, 28, carries the same thumb-worn pocket Bible he did whilst deployed to Iraq in 2006 - a picture of the Virgin Mary tucked inside its pages and his favourite verses highlighted. "It's very different," he said, asked how the experiences compared. "Here I'm fighting for a people and for a faith, and the enemy is much bigger and more brutal."

 

Thousands of foreigners have flocked to Iraq and Syria in the past two years, mostly to join Islamic State, but a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting as well, citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents. The militia they joined is called Dwekh Nawsha - meaning self-sacrifice in the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Christ and still used by Assyrian Christians, who consider themselves the indigenous people of Iraq. A map on the wall in the office of the Assyrian political party affiliated with Dwekh Nawsha marks the Christian towns in northern Iraq, fanning out around the city of Mosul.

 

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Dwekh Nawsha operates alongside Kurdish peshmerga forces to protect Christian villages on the frontline in Nineveh province.

"These are some of the only towns in Nineveh where church bells ring. In every other town the bells have gone silent, and that's unacceptable," said Brett, who has "The King of Nineveh" written in Arabic on the front of his army vest. Brett, who like other foreign volunteers withheld his last name out of concern for his family's safety, is the only one to have engaged in fighting so far.

The others, who arrived just last week, were turned back from the frontline on Friday by Kurdish security services who said they needed official authorisation.

 

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http://youtu.be/5r-P7vITDMc

[Valin]

Peshmerga frown on foreign volunteers
Campbell MacDiarmid
Feb. 16 2015

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Peshmerga leaders have been turning away foreign volunteers eager to fight against the Islamic State, explaining the Kurdish military needs weapons, not manpower. Citing reasons ranging from safety to diplomatic relations, Peshmerga officials say the practice of putting foreigners on the frontline is just not done. For one thing, as Ministry of Peshmerga spokesman Helgurd Hekmat explained, it’s illegal.

“The Peshmerga is a professional fighting force,” Hekmat said, adding that Kurdish law expressly forbids admission of foreigners to the iconic fighting force whose name means “those who face death.”

Still, Hekmat said he routinely turns away wide-eyed Westerners drawn to put their lives on the line in the name of fighting ISIS, and adventure. “Just last week an American man arrived wanting to volunteer. I couldn't help him. Yes, they are volunteers, but we have to guarantee their lives and we can't do that,” he said.

In the past, some Westerners have seen action, but Kurdish authorities appear to be discouraging foreigners from coming to join the fight.

(Snip