Michael Enright: British Pirates of the Caribbean actor leaves Hollywood for Syria to fight Isis
Enright says terror group is a 'stain on humanity'
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The British Pirates of the Caribbean actor Michael Enright has swapped Hollywood for Syria to help Kurdish fighters "obliterate" Isis from the "face of this earth".
Manchester-born Enright lived in Los Angeles and appeared in films such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Knight and Day and the legal drama Law & Order: L.A.
Undeterred by his lack of military experience, the 51-year-old moved to Syria to join the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighting on the front lines against the terror group in Iraq. He now sleeps on a mat on the floor with other soldiers and spends his days attempting to free civilians from Isis control.
Enright told the Dubai-based television network Al Aan the brutal beheading of American photo-journalist James Foley first alerted him to the atrocities committed by the group.
“What was even worse for me is that it was an English man who did it," he said from his base. "I feel such a debt to America; I love America with all of my heart and I just thought ‘I’ve got to try and right this wrong'.”
He said the beheadings of other Western and Japanese hostages, the massacre and sexual enslavement of the Yazidi community and news that a Jordanian pilot had been burned alive finally pushed him to travel to Syria and take up arms against Isis.
"Isis, they need to be wiped off completely the face of this earth," he said. "They are a stain on humanity. This is a call on humanity to obliterate them."
He joins hundreds of other Western fighters who abandoned their day jobs to battle Isis in areas under its self-declared caliphate. Many come from military backgrounds but some have no prior experience with firearms or in the military, making their journey even more unusual.
Enright has written to his family and loved ones in case he does not return to the UK, telling the network that he is in the battle for the long run.
"I didn't come here to run," he insisted. "I came here to fight, and if I have to die then I die."
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