Ex–U.S. Army soldier Jordan Matson was among the first foreign volunteers of the YPG. Injured by an ISIL suicide bomb, he developed the "Lions of Rojava" recruitment campaign for foreign volunteers that was launched on 21 October 2014 as a Facebook page. Subsequently, as of 11 June 2015, more than 400 volunteers from North America, Australia, Europe and South America joined the YPG, including at least ten U.S. volunteers, three of which were U.S. Army veterans. Han Chinese from the United Kingdom and China have also joined. One known Canadian was killed on November 4, 2015, who previously served with the Canadian Forces. Dozens of non-Kurdish Turks (from both Turkey and the European diaspora) have also joined. The Turkish Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) has been sending volunteers.
