These are the latest pictures of Jordan Matson, just one of dozens of U.S. and other foreign fighters who have traveled to Syria to fight alongside Kurdish militias against the Islamic State. The 28-year-old food packaging worker from Sturtevant, Wisconsin, is a former U.S. Army soldier who never served overseas. But he has been fighting with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) since last September. After starting his adventure in Syria, the committed Christian is now in Iraq, where he fights against the jihadis of Islamic State wearing a tactical vest scribbled with the words 'Christ is Lord'. Scroll down for video . International brigades: Jordan Matson, 28, right, a former U.S. Army soldier from Sturtevant, Wisconsin, takes a break with other fighters from the main Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Units, or YPG, in Sinjar, Iraq . Giving back: Matson and dozens of other Westerners now fight with the Kurds, spurred on by social media campaigners and a sense of duty many feel to Iraq, the target of a decade-long U.S.-led military campaign . Online recruitment: Mr Matson and three other Americans and an Australian national who spoke to the AP all said they arranged joining Kurdish forces through the Lions Of Rojava Facebook page . 'I'm not going back until the fight is finished and ISIS is crippled,' Mr Matson told the Associated Press. 'I decided that if my government wasn't going to do anything to help this country, especially Kurdish people who stood by us for 10 years and helped us out while we were in this country, then I was going to do something.' Mr Matson and dozens of other Westerners now fight with the Kurds, spurred on by Kurdish social media campaigners and a sense of duty many feel after Iraq, the target of a decade-long U.S.-led military campaign, collapsed under an Islamic State group offensive within days last summer. And while U.S. and its coalition allies bomb the extremists from the air, Kurds say they hope more Westerners will join them on the ground to fight. Not all fun and games: This picture from the Lions Of Rojava Facebook page shows Richard, who's said to be a Dutch fighter, lying in a clinic after he was injured during violent clashes against IS terrorists in Shingal . More American volunteers: These two men are pictured on the Lions Of Rojava Facebook page and identified as Brandon, left, and Kennedy, right, two more volunteers from the U.S. who have come to fight with the YPG . 'I'm not going back until the fight is finished': An earlier picture of Mr Matson taken from Facebook . Foreigners joining other people's wars is nothing new, from the French Foreign Legion to the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War. The Kurds, however, turned to the Internet to find its warriors, creating a Facebook page called The Lions Of Rojava with the stated mission of sending 'terrorists to hell and save humanity.' The page also frequently features portraits of smiling, beautiful and heavily armed Kurdish female commanders and fighters. Mr Matson and three other Americans and an Australian national who spoke to the AP all said they arranged joining Kurdish forces through the Facebook page, run by the People's Protection Units, or YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish militia fighting in northern Syria and Iraq. They crossed from Turkey into Syria, now in its fourth year of civil war, before later joining a Kurdish offensive sweeping into Iraq to challenge the Islamic State group. They now are based in Sinjar, where stone homes painted green, pink and yellow have been damaged in fighting, surrounded by sandbags and piles of rubble. Foreigners like Mr Matson seem drawn to helping Kurds, Yazidis and other minority ethnic groups caught up in the battle and facing possible destruction at the hand of extremists willing to massacre hundreds in propaganda videos. 'How many people were sold into slavery or killed just for being part of a different ethnic group or religion?' he said. 'That's something I am willing to die to defend.' However, the other Westerners who talked to the AP spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing the reaction of their families, who didn't know where they were, or possible legal troubles if they make it back home. They know how to party: Fighters from the Kurdish YPG and YPJ militias dance in celebration after defeating Islamic State fighters in Kobani, the town in northern Syria which has been a battleground for months . So far, the U.S. hasn't banned Americans from fighting with militias against the Islamic State group, though it considers the Turkey-based Kurdish Workers' Party, commonly known as the PKK, a terrorist organization. The PKK has been fighting alongside the YPG in Sinjar and in the Syrian town of Kobani. Under Australian law, it is illegal to fight with any force outside of its national army. Australia also is one of the first countries to criminalise travel to Syria's al-Raqqa province, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad had no immediate comment to an AP query about Americans fighting with the Kurds. Devastated: Kurdish fighters walk in a street reduced to rubble during the five-month battle for Kobani . Shattered: Almost all parts of the town are in ruins following the fierce fighting that has taken place there . Mr Matson and other foreigners fighting with the YPG last month travelled from Syria into Sinjar, the area which saw thousands of Yazidis flee into the surrounding mountains last year during the Islamic State group's offensive. It's unclear how many foreigners total are fighting with the YPG and other Kurdish forces, though both foreigners and Kurds say there are 'dozens.' There's a clear comradery among foreign fighters in Sinjar, most traveling in pairs around the town. A number of YPG fighters, many of them as young as 17, joke and tease their new foreign friends, speaking to them in the local Kurdish dialect. One fighter, 21-year-old Khalil Oysal from Syria, spends much of his time with the foreigners since he can speak English. 'We learn from them and they learn from us,' said MR Oysal, who American and Australian fighters have nicknamed 'Bucky'. 'They speak with us and they like to joke. They share with us many things.' The human cost of victory: A visitor walks at a cemetery for Kurdish YPG and YPJ fighters killed during the battle for Kobani, at the border town of Suruc, in Turkey's southeastern Sanliurfa province . Western fighters in Sinjar say there is a major drive to recruit as many foreigners as possible, especially those with military training as many of young Kurdish fighters have little or no experience. The young fighters often pick up weapons and ammunition from dead Islamic State group militants. They also have no body armor. Fighting remains dangerous for the Westerners as well. Two of the foreign fighters said they had just returned from visiting an American fighter badly wounded in battle. They said another foreign fighter, a Dutch national, was severely wounded in battle in Syria last week. 'You need to know what you're getting in to,' Mr Matson said. 'A lot of times you're going out, you're in a mud hut. ... You have bullets and a blanket, and sometimes you just have bread, but you need to hold the line.'
Jordan Matson, 28, has been fighting with the YPG since September .
He is one of 'dozens' of foreigners who have traveled to join the Kurds .
They have been recruited through Facebook and many are veterans .
These are the latest pictures of Jordan Matson, just one of dozens of U.S. and other foreign fighters who have traveled to Syria to fight alongside Kurdish militias against the Islamic State. The 28-year-old food packaging worker from Sturtevant, Wisconsin, is a former U.S. Army soldier who never served overseas. But he has been fighting with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) since last September. After starting his adventure in Syria, the committed Christian is now in Iraq, where he fights against the jihadis of Islamic State wearing a tactical vest scribbled with the words 'Christ is Lord'. Scroll down for video . International brigades: Jordan Matson, 28, right, a former U.S. Army soldier from Sturtevant, Wisconsin, takes a break with other fighters from the main Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Units, or YPG, in Sinjar, Iraq . Giving back: Matson and dozens of other Westerners now fight with the Kurds, spurred on by social media campaigners and a sense of duty many feel to Iraq, the target of a decade-long U.S.-led military campaign . Online recruitment: Mr Matson and three other Americans and an Australian national who spoke to the AP all said they arranged joining Kurdish forces through the Lions Of Rojava Facebook page . 'I'm not going back until the fight is finished and ISIS is crippled,' Mr Matson told the Associated Press. 'I decided that if my government wasn't going to do anything to help this country, especially Kurdish people who stood by us for 10 years and helped us out while we were in this country, then I was going to do something.' Mr Matson and dozens of other Westerners now fight with the Kurds, spurred on by Kurdish social media campaigners and a sense of duty many feel after Iraq, the target of a decade-long U.S.-led military campaign, collapsed under an Islamic State group offensive within days last summer. And while U.S. and its coalition allies bomb the extremists from the air, Kurds say they hope more Westerners will join them on the ground to fight. Not all fun and games: This picture from the Lions Of Rojava Facebook page shows Richard, who's said to be a Dutch fighter, lying in a clinic after he was injured during violent clashes against IS terrorists in Shingal . More American volunteers: These two men are pictured on the Lions Of Rojava Facebook page and identified as Brandon, left, and Kennedy, right, two more volunteers from the U.S. who have come to fight with the YPG . 'I'm not going back until the fight is finished': An earlier picture of Mr Matson taken from Facebook . Foreigners joining other people's wars is nothing new, from the French Foreign Legion to the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War. The Kurds, however, turned to the Internet to find its warriors, creating a Facebook page called The Lions Of Rojava with the stated mission of sending 'terrorists to hell and save humanity.' The page also frequently features portraits of smiling, beautiful and heavily armed Kurdish female commanders and fighters. Mr Matson and three other Americans and an Australian national who spoke to the AP all said they arranged joining Kurdish forces through the Facebook page, run by the People's Protection Units, or YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish militia fighting in northern Syria and Iraq. They crossed from Turkey into Syria, now in its fourth year of civil war, before later joining a Kurdish offensive sweeping into Iraq to challenge the Islamic State group. They now are based in Sinjar, where stone homes painted green, pink and yellow have been damaged in fighting, surrounded by sandbags and piles of rubble. Foreigners like Mr Matson seem drawn to helping Kurds, Yazidis and other minority ethnic groups caught up in the battle and facing possible destruction at the hand of extremists willing to massacre hundreds in propaganda videos. 'How many people were sold into slavery or killed just for being part of a different ethnic group or religion?' he said. 'That's something I am willing to die to defend.' However, the other Westerners who talked to the AP spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing the reaction of their families, who didn't know where they were, or possible legal troubles if they make it back home. They know how to party: Fighters from the Kurdish YPG and YPJ militias dance in celebration after defeating Islamic State fighters in Kobani, the town in northern Syria which has been a battleground for months . So far, the U.S. hasn't banned Americans from fighting with militias against the Islamic State group, though it considers the Turkey-based Kurdish Workers' Party, commonly known as the PKK, a terrorist organization. The PKK has been fighting alongside the YPG in Sinjar and in the Syrian town of Kobani. Under Australian law, it is illegal to fight with any force outside of its national army. Australia also is one of the first countries to criminalise travel to Syria's al-Raqqa province, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad had no immediate comment to an AP query about Americans fighting with the Kurds. Devastated: Kurdish fighters walk in a street reduced to rubble during the five-month battle for Kobani . Shattered: Almost all parts of the town are in ruins following the fierce fighting that has taken place there . Mr Matson and other foreigners fighting with the YPG last month travelled from Syria into Sinjar, the area which saw thousands of Yazidis flee into the surrounding mountains last year during the Islamic State group's offensive. It's unclear how many foreigners total are fighting with the YPG and other Kurdish forces, though both foreigners and Kurds say there are 'dozens.' There's a clear comradery among foreign fighters in Sinjar, most traveling in pairs around the town. A number of YPG fighters, many of them as young as 17, joke and tease their new foreign friends, speaking to them in the local Kurdish dialect. One fighter, 21-year-old Khalil Oysal from Syria, spends much of his time with the foreigners since he can speak English. 'We learn from them and they learn from us,' said MR Oysal, who American and Australian fighters have nicknamed 'Bucky'. 'They speak with us and they like to joke. They share with us many things.' The human cost of victory: A visitor walks at a cemetery for Kurdish YPG and YPJ fighters killed during the battle for Kobani, at the border town of Suruc, in Turkey's southeastern Sanliurfa province . Western fighters in Sinjar say there is a major drive to recruit as many foreigners as possible, especially those with military training as many of young Kurdish fighters have little or no experience. The young fighters often pick up weapons and ammunition from dead Islamic State group militants. They also have no body armor. Fighting remains dangerous for the Westerners as well. Two of the foreign fighters said they had just returned from visiting an American fighter badly wounded in battle. They said another foreign fighter, a Dutch national, was severely wounded in battle in Syria last week. 'You need to know what you're getting in to,' Mr Matson said. 'A lot of times you're going out, you're in a mud hut. ... You have bullets and a blanket, and sometimes you just have bread, but you need to hold the line.'
just one of dozens of U.S. and other foreign fighters who have traveled to Syria to fight been fighting with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) since last September. International brigades: Jordan Matson, 28, right, many foreigners total are fighting with the YPG