“Shooting in the right direction”: Anti-ISIS Foreign Fighters in Syria & Iraq

The report examines 'anti-ISIS foreign fighters', finding they are generally older than Islamist fighters, predominantly male, and frequently U.S. military veterans. It identifies the YPG and Peshmerga as the most popular affiliations and analyzes push factors like frustration with international responses and pull factors such as the desire to protect persecuted minorities. The document also explores the complex and inconsistent legal frameworks across Western nations regarding private citizens participating in foreign conflicts.

• Anti-ISIS foreign fighters are generally older than those joining Islamist groups, with an average age of 32.44 years, although the largest proportion (48.4%) are in their 20s.
• Women represent a small minority (3%) of anti-ISIS foreign fighters compared to 14-18% of Islamist foreign fighters, but those who do join are more likely to occupy active combat roles, primarily within the YPJ.
• The United States is the largest source of anti-ISIS foreign fighters in the dataset (38%), a trend largely attributed to the high number of U.S. military veterans, contrasting with the approximately 6% of Islamist foreign fighters from the U.S.
• The most common group affiliations for anti-ISIS foreign fighters are the Syrian-Kurdish YPG (30.7%) and the Iraqi-Kurdish Peshmerga (21.7%), followed by Dwekh Nawsha (5.7%).
• Motivations are divided into push factors, such as frustration with the international community's response to atrocities and a personal lack of purpose, and pull factors, including the desire to defend persecuted minorities and the influence of ISIS's own brutal propaganda.
• Military veterans are specifically motivated by a desire to 'finish the job' and ensure that previous sacrifices made during the 'War on Terror' were not in vain.
• Recruitment for anti-ISIS groups occurs via social media—primarily Facebook—but is less professionalised and less proactive than ISIS's operations, relying more on individual profiles and networking than active grooming.
• Anti-ISIS fighters typically self-fund their travel and participation, often using crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe and IndieGoGo, and generally do not receive pay from the groups they join.
• The legality of fighting against ISIS varies by country; for example, the U.K. allows fighting with the YPG or Peshmerga as long as no war crimes are committed, whereas the PKK is a proscribed terrorist organisation.
• Some nations, such as Belgium and Australia, maintain a blanket ban on joining any foreign army regardless of the group's intentions or the fighter's motivations.

APA

Tuck, H., Silverman, T., & Smalley, C. (2016). “Shooting in the right direction”: Anti-ISIS Foreign Fighters in Syria & Iraq. Institute for Strategic Dialogue. https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ISD-Report-Shooting-in-the-right-direction-Anti-ISIS-Fighters.pdf

Chicago

Tuck, Henry, Tanya Silverman, and Candace Smalley. “Shooting in the right direction”: Anti-ISIS Foreign Fighters in Syria & Iraq. Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2016. https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ISD-Report-Shooting-in-the-right-direction-Anti-ISIS-Fighters.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Tuck |first1=Henry |last2=Silverman |first2=Tanya |last3=Smalley |first3=Candace |title=“Shooting in the right direction”: Anti-ISIS Foreign Fighters in Syria & Iraq |publisher=Institute for Strategic Dialogue |date=2016 |url=https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ISD-Report-Shooting-in-the-right-direction-Anti-ISIS-Fighters.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{tuck2016shooting, author = {Tuck, Henry and Silverman, Tanya and Smalley, Candace}, title = {{“Shooting in the right direction”: Anti-ISIS Foreign Fighters in Syria \& Iraq}}, institution = {Institute for Strategic Dialogue}, year = {2016}, url = {https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ISD-Report-Shooting-in-the-right-direction-Anti-ISIS-Fighters.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }