Dutch prosecutors have declared it legal for biker gang members to travel to Syria and Iraq and fight against the Islamic State (IS).

Joining a foreign armed force was previously illegal under Dutch law, but public prosecutor spokesman Wim de Bruin explained to Agence France-Presse that this was no longer forbidden as long as individuals did not “join a fight against the Netherlands”.

The clarification from Dutch authorities come as images of members from the No Surrender biker gang fighting alongside Kurdish YPG forces in defending Kobane against militants from the IS appeared online over the last week.

#Syria | 3 members of a Dutch motorcycle gang join Kurds in #Kobane to fight #IS #TwitterKurds http://t.co/qSBwSYTvBt pic.twitter.com/rNt3XHDPSt

— Heba (@HebaDelacres) October 11, 2014

Many of the Kurdish diaspora live in Europe, and have staged protests in major cities across the continent calling for greater intervention from the West in combating the IS, which has laid siege to the city of Kobane on the Syria-Turkey border for the last four weeks.

The US-led coalition has stepped up air strikes around Kobane in recent days, with US Central Command stating that they ran 21 strikes on IS targets in and around the city on Monday, and similar numbers of strikes heard by journalists on the ground on Tuesday.