The mother from North Carolina, 25-year-old Samantha Johnston previously served in the US Army. She is believed to have joined the Kurdish Peshmerga troops, who are battling ISIS in northern Iraq and Syria.
The mother of three children said she felt like it was her duty to go fight the terrorists. She is among around 100 westerners estimated to be fighting alongside Kurdish militias. She said she “couldn’t just sit and do nothing.”
The photos of Johnston have popped up on have been circulating on Kurdish news websites. She told the Daily Caller that she joined the Kurdish fighters by seeking them out. She claims she made ‘the right connections and verified they were reliable’.
ISIS is known for killing dozens of people at a time, carrying out public executions, beheadings, crucifixions and other brutal acts.
Johnston, who is a divorcee with a five-year-old child and three-year-old twins, has also expressed her desire to return home, saying “I already want to fly back to my babies but I have a purpose and a goal.”
Johnston plans on creating a humanitarian group when she returns home to North Carolina so she can still help the people of Iraq.
“No, to me this has nothing to do with religion,” she is quoted as saying. “I am a Christian, but I’m protecting humanity. No matter the race or religion.”
Johnston regularly updates he Facebook page with photos of herself in Iraq.
