Actor’s musical message to Isil
Briton fighting Isil in Syria plays pop star’s music after extremist group is ousted from devastated city
An actor from Manchester, who joined Kurdish forces fighting Isil, played the music of Ariana Grande in the centre of Raqqa, in retaliation for the bombing of his home city earlier this year. Michael Enright said that after the extremist group came to “my city”, it was fitting that the pop star’s music should be heard in Raqqa’s Al-naim Square, where Isil staged public executions until the extremists were ousted last week.
A MANCUNIAN actor who joined Kurdish forces fighting Isil has marked the fall of Raqqa by playing the music of Ariana Grande, in retaliation for the Manchester bombing.
Michael Enright said that after the extremist group came to “my city” and “tried to shut up Ariana Grande” it was fitting that the pop star’s music should be heard in the Syrian city of Raqqa.
The 53-year-old was filmed in the devastated city’s Al-naim Square, where the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) group staged public executions until it was ousted last week.
Mr Enright, who has had small parts in US television shows and Hollywood films, including a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, said the militant movement “didn’t shut Manchester up”.
Isil claimed responsibility for the attack on May 22, when Salman Abedi killed 22 and wounded more than 100 when he blew himself up in a crowd of young people leaving a concert by the American singer.
Mr Enright said he was playing Grande’s music from his mobile phone “because I am from Manchester and they came to my city – they came to my city – and they tried to shut up Ariana Grande”. Playing the song Bang Bang on his mobile phone, he said: “They didn’t shut her up and they didn’t shut Manchester up. She’s singing Bang Bang and you know what happened, we came and we did bang bang and you [Isil] left, you ran away.
“And so light is coming back here now, freedom is coming back here now and singing is coming back here. And Ariana, it’s your first concert here.”
Mr Enright, from Moss Side, joined a rag-tag group of Britons fighting against Isil when he signed up to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in 2015. He was one of dozens of foreign fighters who travelled to the self-styled Kurdish enclave of Rojava to join the fight. At least five Britons are reported to have since died fighting alongside the Kurds in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Earlier this year, Mr Enright said: “The attack in Manchester especially brought a lot of emotions. I’m used to a lot of death, and terrorist attacks, but this was different. It’s my home town.
“I was heartbroken because of the age of the targets, those little girls.”
Isil has suffered a series of major military setbacks in recent months, including the loss of Raqqa, once the extremists’ self-styled capital, and the Iraqi city of Mosul. Most of the territory the group once held has been seized by Syrian and Iraqi forces.
The group is now mostly confined to the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor in the east of Syria, along the border with Iraq. Isil holds around 40 per cent of the province, which was once almost completely in its hands, and faces two separate offensives, one by the SDF and another by Bashar al-assad’s forces.
An estimated 6,500 Isil fighters remain in eastern Syria and western Iraq, many concentrated along the Euphrates River valley straddling the border, the US military said last week.