Mom of vet detained in Iraq says he’s free

A Canadian veteran who was detained by Iraqi authorities after spending six months fighting ISIL has been released, his mother said Tuesday.

“He’s been freed, thank God,” Kay Kennedy said shortly after her son, Michael Kennedy, phoned home from Erbil to say he was no longer being held. “I am so happy you couldn’t imagine.”

She said he told her he had been detained with three Americans and two Germans over travel visa problems. While Kennedy had a valid Iraqi visa, his companions did not.

When Iraqi authorities arrested the Americans and Germans, Kennedy insisted they take him as well.

“He did not want to let his group end up in prison without him,” she said, adding the others remained in their cell, but expected to be released soon.

A Royal Canadian Navy veteran, Kennedy, 32, is one of hundreds of international volunteers fighting alongside Kurdish militias on the front lines against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has a history of arresting anti-ISIL volunteers as they are leaving Syria through Iraq. Officially they are held for visa violations, but some believe it has more to do with tensions between Iraqi and Syrian Kurds.

The KRG is aligned with Turkey, which is fighting the Syrian YPG militia and its sister the PKK, said Guillaume Corneau, a Laval University student who has been studying the foreign fighters with Kurdish forces.

“One thing that I am sure is that the KRG does it on purpose to harass the YPG and particularly the foreigners. It does it probably to please Turkey. The latter hates those foreigners.” he said.