German biker gangs join their Dutch counterparts in fighting against ISIS in Kobane

    

Members of a German motorcycle gang have arrived in the besieged Syrian city of Kobane to fight against Islamic State militants who have been attacking the city for the past four weeks.

Leaders of the Cologne-based Median Empire Motorcycle Club, which has strong Kurdish links, have posted images of their riders posing in the city - some of them carrying weapons.

The news comes just after three members of a notorious motorcycle gang from the Netherlands were told they had not committed any crime by travelling to Kobane to join the fight against ISIS.

Images of the Median Empire Motorcycle Club emerged on the group's Facebook page, and showed the heavily tattooed riders with rifles slung over the shoulders.

In a shot of the Germans huddled together, the gang's logo - a sinister looking white face on a black background - could clearly be seen on their leather vests.

The image was captioned: 'Our boys were in Kobane today and told me today they were shot at but nothing happened. They are okay.' 

Four days earlier, the same Facebook user wrote: 'While others blabber and blabber, our boys are at the front fighting.' 

    

The gang's official Facebook page says the riders have travelled to the Middle East to distribute aid, and several images show them handing out food to Yazidis in what looks like a refugee camp.

Elsewhere of their Facebook page, the Median Empire Motorcycle Club praise the notorious Netherlands based No Surrender gang, three members of which have also travelled to fight in Kobane, according to its leader Klaas Otto.

Last week a Dutch prosecutor told the members that they will not be prosecuted for going to fight abroad, because such actions are only illegal if you are fighting troops from the Netherlands. 

Public prosecutor spokesman Wim de Bruin said: 'Joining a foreign armed force was previously punishable, now it's no longer forbidden. You just can't join a fight against the Netherlands.'

   

While several countries including Britain have taken steps to stop their citizens joining ISIS, joining the Kurds is generally permissible because they are not considered a terrorist organisation.

However, anyone going to fight ISIS would be banned from joining the Kurdistan Workers' Party, who run several of the brigades fighting ISIS, because they are considered to be terrorists. 

Dutch citizens fighting on the Kurdish side would of course be liable to prosecution if they committed crimes such as torture or rape, De Bruin said.

'But this is also happening a long way away and so it'll be very difficult to prove,' he added.

Video footage apparently from a Kurdish broadcaster shows an armed European man with Kurdish fighters saying in Dutch: 'The Kurds have been under pressure for a long time.' 

    

There are estimated to be around 70,000 Kurds living in the Netherlands, most of whom are political refugees who fled from Turkey and the Middle East looking for work.

   

An ISIS propaganda video released last week featured a German militant who threatened any Western soldier who travels to fight in Syria.

Identified as Abu Dauoud al-Almani steps in front of the camera and speaks in German, subtitled in English.

Al-Amani claimed the video is being shot in the Syrian town of Dabiq and urges Western nations to send their armies to fight ISIS because 'We have been waiting for you for over 1,400 years.'

He also urges his fellow Muslims in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to join ISIS.

Al-Almani is far from the first German citizen to embrace radical Islam.

Former rapper Denis Cuspert spent several years as a major player in the Berlin hip hop scene under the name Deso Dogg before embracing radical Islam and travelling join ISIS in Syria.

It is understood Cusbert now calls himself Abu Talha al-Almani and leads a unit of German-speaking ISIS terrorists operating under the name 'The German Brigade of Millatu Ibrahim'.

It is not known whether Abu Dauoud al-Almani is a member of Cuspert's militant unit.