These days, the fight against ISIS is drawing a different kind of Western volunteer. Two years ago, the media discovered that combatants from Europe and the United States were travelling to the Middle East not only to join the jihadist forces, but also to fight them.

The focus mostly fell on the Lions of Rojava, an international unit composed of veterans and former private defense contractors within the YPG, the Kurdish armed forces in Rojava. The YPG has a strong left-wing political identity, but the Lions’ profiles and rhetoric seemed to clash with the army they had joined. For example, former British serviceman Alan Duncan drew a parallel between the Kurds’ fight against ISIS in Syria and the Brits’ fight against the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.

Now, the profile of the Western volunteers in the region is changing from military veterans to ideologically inspired political activists embedded in a number of organizations.