As hundreds of ex-patriots from America and other Western nations join the Islamic State to fulfill a passion for conflict or jihad, a much smaller number of Westerners are signing up to fight the militant group. The latest: members of a biker gang from Holland.
The head of Never Surrender, Klaas Otto, told a Dutch radio station that several members have gone to Iraq to join Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS.
The gang touts a quote from Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel on its Facebook page: "I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides."
The story was first reported Wednesday by NPR.
The bikers join several others outraged over the brutality displayed by Islamic State fighters, who have seized wide swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq. A former American soldier from Racine, Wis., joined Kurdish fighters in Northern Iraq and was wounded in a mortar attack.
"I couldn't just sit and watch Christians being slaughtered anymore," John Matson, 28, told USA Today last week from a hospital bed Derike, Syria. "These people are fighting for their homes, for everything they have."
Matson said he met one other American fighting the militants.
The U.S. government says dozens of Americans may have joined the Islamic State, raising fears many could return to commit terrorist acts at home.
The United States and Western allies are attacking the militants with airstrikes but have ruled out committing ground forces, prompting talk of other fighters taking on the Islamic State.
Fox News' Bill O'Reilly recommended in recent weeks that President Obama raise 25,000 mercenaries to battle the Islamic State. The use of such forces has been banned by the U.N. General Assembly.
