ALBANY, N.Y. — A former Occupy Wall Street protester and volunteer medic who had taken up the cause of the Middle East’s Kurds was one of two American volunteers killed while fighting against the Islamic State group in Syria. The People’s Protection Units, also known by their Kurdish initials as the YPG, announced Tuesday the Americans died in battle in Raqqa, the base of the Islamic State group in northern Syria. Warden died July 5, and Grodt died July 6. Warden says in a YPG video he travelled from Buffalo in February to fight the Islamic State group because of attacks inspired by the group in San Bernardino, California; Orlando, Florida; and Paris. The U.S. military has developed a close relationship with the YPG and its parent coalition, the Syrian Democratic Forces, in the war against the Islamic State group.

Source: National Post July 12, 2017 19:22 UTC