Internationalists Callum Ross (Rizgar Çiya), Ozgan Ozdil (Dêrsim Agir), Anthonî Degatto (Rustem Fist), Justin Schnepp (Şervan Agir), Mirko Bruna (Mirko Cûdî) from Italy, Paola Andolina (Azadî Raperîn) from Italy, Damien Rodriguez (Şêrzad Azad) from the US, Fernando Sanches Grassa (Çiya Azadî) from Spain have been fighting ISIS in the ranks of the YPG in Rojava for a while.

The foreign volunteers crossed into Southern Kurdistan to go back home from Rojava but they were arrested by KDP forces at an asayish (public security) checkpoint 1,5 km to Hewler.