HASAKAH, Syria — In northern Syria, a group of Western volunteers is trying to bring combat medics into the fight against the Islamic State (IS).

In September, when northern Syria was still hot enough for sand flies to bite, John Harding sat at a makeshift table of plywood and concrete bricks at a former dairy that is now a base for the People’s Protection Units (YPG). He was telling his favorite story from his second tour serving as a volunteer alongside YPG and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting IS.

The Syrian city of Manbij had been liberated from IS in mid-August after months of fierce fighting, and the Tactical Medical Unit (TMU), also known by its Kurdish name Yekineyen Bijiski Taktiki — a group of around half a dozen mostly Western volunteers — was approached by a local who was holding one of the many IS mines left in the city.

Harding, a British military veteran and the oldest in the group (known as “Pops” to most), volunteered to carry the mine, under his chin so he wouldn't survive mangled if it were to explode, to a basement of an abandoned building nearby. It wasn't the usual mission for the team of combat medics, and it certainly was not the preferred method of mine disposal.