US 'crusader' returns to Iraq with Christian militia to fight ISIS

A 28-year-old former US soldier has returned to Iraq as part of a militia defending one of the world's oldest Christian communities under threat from terror group ISIS.

The man, known only as Brett, is one of the leading foreign fighters in the Dwekh Nawsha Christian militia. He had previously served in the US Army in Baghdad between 2006 and 2007.

Now, he is based in Al-Qosh, home of a mostly Christian population, which had been forced to flee into Kurdistan when ISIS fighters threatened to approach.

Brett describes himself as a crusader' with a tattoo of Jesus with a crown of thorns on one arm and a machine gun on the other.

He is also responsible for recruiting fellow foreign fighters.

ISIS was never able to capture Al-Qosh, but much of the population, like that in Mosul, which had a large Christian community, has also been forced to flee.

Speaking from the Dwekh Nawsha stronghold in the Kurdish city of Dohuk, he said: 'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. But here we're actually fighting for the freedom of the people here to be able live peaceably, to be able to live without persecution, to keep the church bells ringing.'

The mass exodus that took place in mid-2014 has put the continued existence of one of world's oldest Christian communities into question.

With Kurdish peshmerga fighters now clawing back land around Mosul, some Christians are keen to take up arms for their survival and Dwekh Nwasha is only one of several recently formed groups.

Thousands of westerners have been recruited into the ranks of ISIS, but many of those end up as 'cannon fodder' or suicide bombers to assist more valuable Chechen fighters.

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