SYRIA. Tel Hama. May 19, 2015. Azad (his nome de guerre), 45, is an American foreign fighter aligned with the Kurdish YPG militia, photographed in the front line village of Tel Hama, in Kurdish-controlled north-eastern Syria, a region that the Kurds call Rojava. Azad, a native of Texas, worked as an oil truck driver before leaving the United States to join the YPG in their fight against the Islamic State.