‘Jihad is not a war. That is a goal. If there are young women with children, boys who have lost their way… If they’re stuck in that hell and we can get them out, isn’t it our duty to do the same? Every single person we can bring back is living proof that the Islamic State has failed.’

Former British soldier John Carney was running a close-up campaign in Iraq for oil executives when he was asked by the family of a young Dutch woman to get her out of the Islamic State. is collapsing in Syria. Having witnessed with his own eyes the terrifying living hell of innocent young girls being tricked, many from the West, trapped by IS, sexually abused and enslaved, he only knew one thing – he have to get them out.

Armed with AK-47s and 9mm Glocks, he waged a daring, dangerous, and deadly campaign to free as many people as possible. With a small group of dedicated Kurdish freedom fighters, supported by humanitarian NGOs and providing intelligence to MI6, Carney and his men went behind the front lines in the heart of the storm. The enemy leads Syria, risking their lives to get their women and children to safety.

You’ll learn more about the Middle East, the Rise of ISIS, and the Fall of the Caliphate reading Operation Jihadist Bride more than any news series or TV documentary on any platform you choose. This is heroic stuff, written like a good novel, but better: this is the true story of a man driven by moral imperatives to rescue young women who want to run away from horror show IS.

The partnership between Army veteran Carney and his co-writer created a wonderful story that kept me hooked until the very end. I could not recommend this book more highly.

• Operation Jihadi Bride

• The Covert Mission to Rescue Young Women from ISIS
• By: John Carney, Clifford Thurlow