Report: More than one-third of Western volunteers fighting ISIS are American

A Kurdish militia member fights in Syria.
(Image credit: AFP/Getty Images)

A new report estimates that more than 100 Americans have gone to Syria and Iraq to join militia groups fighting the Islamic State.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue's report, published Tuesday, draws from a database of 300 foreign fighters from Western nations who have social media accounts, ABC News reports. It's believed that more than a third of those volunteers are from the United States, with most being male and several of them veterans. A majority are serving in Kurdish militias.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.