#3 Former Canadian Super Model Tiger Sun returns from fighting with the YPG and the YPJ against ISIS jihadists.
The former model, 46, fought jihadist fighters from Islamic State for four months with the Kurdish YPJ (Women's Protection Units), until her legs buckled under the weight of her kit and malnutrition. This finally forced her to return home to Canada.
On March 1 she left behind her grown up daughter from a previous relationship and flew to Iraq where she was smuggled through the country and into Syria.
With no real training other than how to fire a gun, she was thrust straight into battle.
'Did I see violence? Did I see ISIS kill innocent people? Yes, I was in the fight. I saw them trying to kill us. We see Daesh (ISIS), we kill Daesh, and that's about it. It's actually quite simple.
'To be honest, the bodies don't haunt me. The friends I lost do make me sad though, and the unfairness of it all upsets me.
Tiger witnessed death and destruction every day while fighting ISIS.
In June her group seized control of Tal Abyad – in the north of Syria, close to the border with Turkey – a key town used by ISIS to exports goods such as black market oil into eastern Syria.
The person in the trench next to you could be a guy or a girl and it makes no difference. They're soldiers first. Not once did I feel harassed, objectified or in danger when I was around the men.
In battle Tiger fought with a woman who shot 28 jihadists dead – although she never killed anyone herself.
‘They were always just out of range,’ she said. ‘I brought my own pair of binoculars with me because they weren’t readily available, so I was doing a lot of the spotting, which led to kills.
‘I would go and look at the bodies afterwards, but it didn't and still doesn't bother me. I had lunch by a pile of brains once. It was no big deal.
But she’s not scared of ISIS, whom she described as ‘a bunch of little men with crazy beards.’
'All I saw were a bunch of social misfits pretending to be something bigger than they really were. They use fear tactics to scare people, but in reality they're not that intimidating.’
She added: ‘I love the YPJ and all the friends I made. I love the people and I'm worried about my friends. It also turns out that I really like the fighting.’
Daily Mail UK |
