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Iranian Kurds Bolster Anti-IS Forces in Iraq, Syria

Hundreds of Iranian Kurds are bolstering Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq as volunteers in the fight against the Islamic State, according to fighters and Kurdish sources in Iraq and Syria. “I decided to come to Syria to help my Kurdish brethren fight (IS),” said Iranian Kurd Zanyar Rafaat, who joined the Syrian Kurdish People’s […]

Mehdi Jedinia and Sirwan Kajjo write for Voice of America:

Hundreds of Iranian Kurds are bolstering Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq as volunteers in the fight against the Islamic State, according to fighters and Kurdish sources in Iraq and Syria.

“I decided to come to Syria to help my Kurdish brethren fight (IS),” said Iranian Kurd Zanyar Rafaat, who joined the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) after IS began a major onslaught on a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria in 2014.

Thousands of volunteers from many nations – among them, Americans and Europeans — have been supplementing Kurdish forces over the past two years. Kurds train them, provide weapons and house and feed these volunteers. Several of them, including an American from Maryland, have died in battle.