A Kurdish official in Syria says that an American man from Wisconsin is now in the country fighting the Islamic State group as a member of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
“Yes it is true,” YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said in an online statement regarding 28-year-old Jordan Matson’s recruitment into YPG’s ranks. “He is fighting in the Jazaa area,” he added, Reuters reported Thursday.
Mr. Matson is thought to be fighting along Syria’s borders with Turkey and Iraq, the wire service reported. Pictures of the American have already started showing up on Kurdish news outlets and Twitter.
Earlier in the week, Syrian Kurdish leaders said that without American and European weapons that fighters with the Islamic State group would soon overrun the border town of Kobani.
“We are asking everybody who can help us to provide weapons to the people fighting against tanks and artillery, but nobody is doing anything. There will be many who are martyred,” Saleh Muslim, head of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), told Reuters while in Paris on Tuesday.
The U.S. plans to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) over the next year with $500 million in funding approved by Congress. Mr. Muslim told Reuters that FSA does not operate in the Kobani region.
SEE ALSO: Syrian Kurdish leader warns of Kobani massacre without U.S. weapons soon
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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