American, Jeremy Woodard, has joined forces with Kurdish fighters known as Popular Protection Units (YPG) in their fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Ras al-Ain, Syria.
Twenty-eight year-old Woodard is a US Army veteran, originally from Meridian, Mississippi.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER U.S. SOLDIER NOW FIGHTING WITH YPG IN SYRIA, JEREMY WOODARD, SAYING:
"I served in the U.S. army for eight years, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan."
Woodard says YPG doesn't recruit fighters from abroad. He joined the effort willingly.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER U.S. SOLDIER NOW FIGHTING WITH YPG IN SYRIA, JEREMY WOODARD, SAYING:
"ISIS has pretty much taken over - running people away from their homes, killing innocent people, raping people, selling Kurdish people into slavery as sex-slaves. A lot of us don't want to stand for that so myself and others have decided to come here and fight against it."
Another foreign fighter who's joined the cause identifie
