For British actor Michael Enright, the release of video footage by ISIS showing the August killing of U.S. journalist James Foley first motivated him to make the difficult journey into Syria to join the fight against the terror group.
"It
was heartbreaking, it was shocking, it made me angry," he said. The
subsequent killings of other hostages from Britain and Japan, and ISIS'
persecution of the Yazidi minority in Iraq, only hardened his resolve to
help out however he could, he said.
The
51-year-old, who's volunteering with Kurdish fighters in Syria, has now
appealed for the United Kingdom to give the Kurds more help in their
battle against the Sunni extremists.
Speaking
to CNN from Rojava, a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria, Enright said
the Kurdish forces had the heart and will to fight but needed more air
support to cut off ISIS supply routes. The actor left Los Angeles in
March for Syria, traveling via Turkey and Iraq.
While Enright is clear his mission is to help the Kurds, whom he sees as friends and comrades, others have been more skeptical.
Last
week, a former U.S. Army serviceman who has turned recruiter for
foreigners eager to fight with Kurdish forces against ISIS claimed in a
Facebook post that Enright was a liability who is in danger of being
killed by his own comrades.
Jordan Matson of Sturtevant, Wisconsin,
said that Enright had been kicked out of four fighting units and had
been asked to leave twice by the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or
YPG.
He also questioned the actor's
state of mind, said he was carrying around an AK-47 that had been
disabled by his own side, and suggested Enright was there writing a
movie script.
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