12/11/2022 0 Comments Hunting isisIt has quietly expanded its armed presence in Syria by establishing private security companies, making use of al-Assad's Legislative Decree No. Russia, which has intervened in the Syrian conflict to prop up the brutal regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, views Syria's natural resources as a major prize and has set its sights on securing a big slice of the reconstruction cake. Īrmed members of ISIS Hunters, a Russian private security company that operates in Syria, are seen at an oil well in rural Deir Ezzor. ISIS Hunters mercenaries near Palmyra, Syria, in 2017. The real focus of the ISIS Hunters, Syrian observers say, is to secure Russia's many and varied economic interests in Syria. In reality, however, it has been some time since ISIS has been the company's target. Heavily armed and sporting distinctive arm patches that show a menacing skull overlaid by a red target, members of the mercenary group look as if they are hardened warriors fighting "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) remnants. This felt like something intense and meaningful and something I could jump right into.Videos circulated online by Russian media outlets project a macho imago of the "ISIS Hunters" - a Russian-backed private security company in Syria. "I didn't want to do two more years of college and job hunting to do something to improve the world. Maybe this is something that I could do," he told the Tribune. "YPG was the only military force that went into Mount Sinjar and fought off Islamic State. Stevens said that his dramatic tale of joining the YPG began as means of pursuing an adventure. In August 2014, ISIS or "Daesh" forces massacred thousands of Yazidi Kurds in Iraq before President Obama ordered the first U.S. "Most of those who sign up are young adults, idealists and those with a military background who sympathize, and perhaps romanticize, the group's stated fight against Islamic State and oppression in Syria, Turkey and Iraq," the Chicago Tribune interview stated.Īs Rolling Stone reported last year, YPG is among several Syrian militia forces fighting Al-Qaeda and Islamic State factions. In 2017, after filling out surveys and being sent material making sure he was serious about the "revolution," Stevens bought a one-way ticket to the Middle East to join the rebel forces. ![]() Stevens first heard of YPG just before leaving the U.S. “Hello, I’m a leftist from the United States interested in fighting for the cause in Rojava,” he wrote. Stevens reached out to the People’s Protection Units, also known as YPG, through a Facebook message in April 2017. When Chicago police were informed that Stevens was seeking treatment from an incident connected to the Islamic State, several officers "barged in the hospital room" and began "aggressively and suspiciously" interrogating him over potential terrorist ties. As he attempted to retrieve a rifle, a sniper bullet tore through his calf muscle and "there was blood spurting out." Over the next several days, Stevens underwent surgeries at military hospitals in Iraq and Syria before being sent back to Chicago, records obtained by the Tribune showed. Stevens said that one week before ending up in Chicago, he was battling ISIS militia on the roof of a home in Abu Hamam alongside the Kurdish fighters. In January 2018, Stevens found himself suffering from a week-old gunshot wound in his leg in the emergency intake waiting room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Stevens reached out to the group through a Facebook message in April 2017, writing, "Hello, I'm a leftist from the United States interested in fighting for the cause in Rojava." He later traveled to the small Syrian town of Abu Hamam near the Euphrates River. ![]() The People's Protection Units, also known as YPG, have an extensive social media presence intended to recruit fighters from around the world. hospital, where he soon faced interrogation by Chicago police and the FBI for potential terrorist ties. After six months of fighting in Syrian towns, a gunshot wound brought Stevens back to a U.S. to become one of many young Americans joining Kurdish militia groups in the fight against ISIS in Syria, Chicago Tribune reported in a wide-ranging profile. A 23-year-old from Ann Arbor, Michigan found himself seeking treatment for a gunshot wound in a Chicago hospital after being flown 6,200 miles from Syria, where he was a volunteer fighter against Islamic State militants.Ī former West Point cadet, Caleb Stevens left the U.S.
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