After deployment for years in Iraq and Afghanistan as a member of the Royal Marines, 34-year-old Emile Ghessen decide to use another weapon to battle terror organizations in the Middle East.
He gave up using guns for a camera as the former British soldier and ex-schoolmate of Jihadi John, or Mohammed Emwazi, makes a documentary on the Islamic State (IS). Ghessen studied at St. Mary Magdalene, a primary school in Westminster, where Emwazi also went and was the classmate of his brother.
Also included in the docu are why western volunteers are risking their lives to fight the IS in the Middle East, reports Mirror. Explaining his career shift, Ghessen says, "I feel the power of the media has a much further reach than any gun that I carried."
The former marine adds that his new work is more personal because relatives from his father's side are Syrian Christians who still live in the nation torn by civil war and parts overtaken by the Islamic terror group. His relatives, Ghessen recounts, live in fear of the IS getting and killing them with no hesitation. Ghessen adds that according to his kinsmen, the Christian population in Syria would be slaughtered in President Assad goes.
After Ghessen left as a sergeant the Marines in June 2012 after 12 years of military service, he then worked as a top-notch private security guard which he left in May to fly to Iraq to film how UK volunteers are supporting the Kurdish Peshmerga forces that battle the IS. He admits that being unarmed and placing his life in the hands of other people as he films with the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran could sometimes be daunting.
At some point, he had to dress as a soldier to blend with the crowd as he crossed from Iraq to Iran. He shares, "Despite some scary situations I'm not afraid as I use all my experience from my days inthe Marines and working in the private security industry.
Ghessen says he is aware some think he is crazy for moving in a war zone with just a camera as his arms.
"But I know what I'm doing and try to mitigate any risks to the best of my ability using my combat experience," Daily Mail quotes the former soldier.