Rojava/ Kurdish Regions Newswire

[Marinaleda]

There was a sense of good news hidden in the words spoken by President Tayyip Erdoğan when he said, “Kobanê is about to fall” during the days when Rojava’s defence force YPG was resisting against ISIS in the besieged city. Now Kurds are celebrating that “Tell Abyad is about to fall”. The front ISIS has struggled most on has been Rojava. The YPG ousted ISIS from Kobanê and now have them hemmed in at Tell Abyad and want to create a channel between the Kobanê and Cizire (Jazira) cantons. As long as ISIS are in Tell Abyad there will be no peace for Cizire or Kobanê. YPG forces from the west (Kobanê) and from the south (Serekaniye) have surrounded Tell Abyad on two fronts. Tell Abyad connects Raqqa in the south, which ISIS has turned into a central base, to the Turkey border. According to information I obtained from YPG spokesperson Redur Xelil and a local Arab source the YPG have repelled ISIS to Sirrin and Ayn Isa at the south of Kobanê and have progressed to within 10km of Tell Abyad on the west and 19km on the south. The YPG are carrying out this operation with the Arab Burkan Al Firat (Euphrates Volcano) forces and have as of yesterday entered the eastern part of the town of Süluk which lies on the east of Tell Abyad. However the YPG are progressing warily; they are trying to avoid any civilian casualties and are sensitive to the reactions of the majority Arab population of the area. For this reason they are trying to make the Arabs feel safe and protected.

When ISIS attacked the area to the north of Aleppo where many Turkmen live, the third canton of Rojava, Afrin, also went on red alert. However even if ISIS defeat the other opposition forces surrounding them, it will not be easy for them to enter the area. Furthermore in contrast to Kobanê, which is flat, Afrin has mountainous areas that create protection against attacks from outside. So where is Turkey positioned in this ARRANGEMENT of war? The Turkish government, which armed the Army of Conquest against the Syrian regime, is unhappy at the YPG’s advance. Despite it being ISIS that is threatening the Turkmen in the villages around Azez and the Hamam town in Serekaniye (Ras al-Ayn), Erdoğan gave a cautionary response to developments. Having lost the Kurds with the gleeful words, “Kobanê is about to fall,” Erdoğan said yesterday:

“The West are bombing the Arabs and Turkmen in Tell Abyad and unfortunately replacing them with the terrorist organisation PYD and PKK.”

Could there be a more striking confession of support for ISIS? What is the point of being angry with USA President Barack Obama who recently said, “ISIS is replenishing itself with the thousands of fighters crossing from Turkey into Syria. Turkish officials are still yet to maximise their capacity and efforts to prevent this.”

Can the president of a country, at a time when over 500 Kurds from Turkey have lost their lives fighting ISIS in the ranks of the YPG, really toy with the pain of cities scorched with corpses? The bodies of 10 youths, who lost their lives recently in Cizire, were brought to Turkey. Hundreds of people lost their lives on the Syria and Iraq fronts protecting not just the Kurds but also the Arabs, Turkmen, Assyrians and Yazidis. Of course people are having to leave their homes because of the conflict, ISIS’s oppression and aerial bombardments. However what we have here is a serious form of exaggeration and indeed manipulation. I asked Syria Turkmen Parliament President Abdurrahman Mustafa about this and this is what he had to say:

“When it’s said that Turkmen are being exiled everyone is asking us in anxiety about what is happening. I sent our representatives to Akçakale (Turkey’s border town to Tell Abyad) and they couldn’t find any refugees there. The situation is being exaggerated. A few people had come from Hamam but they have also returned. There are no Kurds in Hamam, only the threat of ISIS. 200-300 people have come from the Azez area due to the conflict between opposition forces and ISIS. This has nothing to do with Kurds either.”

If we are to talk about ethnic cleansing of any sort it would informative to look at what the Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar ash-Sham, two groups driven into Tell Abyad from Turkey, did to Kurds. When Kurds took administrative power in Rojava in July 2012, jihadist groups supported by Turkey entered Tell Abyad on 19th September 2012. There was conflict between them and the Kurdish Front, soon after peace resumed. Then a year later between 19th July and 5th August Kurds were told to leave Tell Abyad otherwise they would be killed by announcements from mosques. Following this houses were raided one by one, men were killed and women and children were taken hostage. At the time the YPG announced that 70 people had been killed and 400 abducted. (El Alem said 330 women, 120 of them still children had been massacred, but this figure could not be confirmed from other sources.) This was truly ethnic cleansing. With the exile of Kurds the Kobanê and Cizire cantons were cut off from each other. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took the matter to the UN and demanded condemnation but no one was interested because it would ‘stain the revolution.’ Parallel to the division between Al Nusra and ISIS in January 2014, ISIS brutally suppressed their former partners and took control of Tell Abyad. There is a long list of similar massacres. For example Al-Nusra and their partners massacred tens of Alawites in Istebrak following their victory in Idlib on 25th April 2015. On 10th June Al-Nusra killed at least 20 Durzis in the Kalp Loze village in Idlib.

As is evident the dossiers of crimes committed in Syria are beyond comprehension. And these dossiers are also cumbersome enough to chase those that fall!

[Sentinel]

Attaching a screenshot of the current (as of yesterday) situation on the front between YPG and Daesh. The map is from is from the war map on wikipedia (in the article 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant'), it is updated fairly regularly and seems to be accurate enough most of the times. But of course it can't be relied on to 100%.

Yellow is YPG and grey is Daesh. Tell Abyad is at the narrowest stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border still under Daesh control, directly to the north of (Daesh capital) Raqqa. In just the last few days, the YPG has swept seemingly unstoppably both west from Cizire and east from Kobane, either seizing or besieging the smaller town of Suluk east of Tall Abyad sometime yesterday.

According to some reports (the map does not confirm it though) they have already cut the road between Tell Abyad and Raqqa. Losing this fastest gateway towards Turkey would indeed be a very hard blow for Daesh economically and militarily, while the geographical unification of the two largest ones of the three Rojava cantons would obviously strengthen YPGs position significantly.

[Sentinel]

Moving thread from Practice & Propaganda to Ongoing Struggles.

YPG statement on the Tell Abyad/Gire Sipi battle, from their website:

June 14: Girê Spî (Tell Abyad) Rescue Operation

Created on Sunday, 14 June 2015 14:39 | | | Hits: 1729


Immediate Release for the Media and Public Opinion
CIZÎRÊ, Rojava (June 14, 2015) – Following Phase II of Operation Commander Rubar Qamishlo, on its 39th uninterrupted day, members of the People’s Defense Units (YPG) along with the Women’s Defense Units (YPJ) – from both Kobanê and Cizîrê Cantons – have initiated a clamp assault operation against terrorist forces positioned in and around the city of Girê Spî (Tell Abyad).
Entirely liberating the town of Silûk, our forces last night continued to bring into performance numerous mop-up operations in the area and later directed towards the region amid Tell Abyad and Silûk; and eventually managed to rescue the villages of – Seîdo, Khashamn, Til Eshq Seîde, Bêjing, Kevok, Enzê, Mishêrfa Shêikh, Îsawî, Ayn al-Arus – as well as over 20 surrounding farmlands from terrorists’ occupation.
Completing final stages of a historical resistance, our troops from Kobanê congruently proceeded last night to advance to the west and southwestern Tell Abyad and inflicted important blows to the terrorist elements.
During the past 24 hours in rural Kobanê, Defense Units managed to cleanse the following villages off Daesh terrorists: Frêhan, Hêmira Kurda, Hemira Ereba, Boxa ya Mezin, Boxa ya Biçuk, Rafî, Sikêrat, Im Hiwêş, Nihit, Ebu Zihur, Bedrîa, Ebu Xireze, Xirbet Ebid, Xirbê Elwe, Curîl Xet, Gundê, Cihişa, Seddê, Faris, Eribet Ecil a Mezin, Eribet Ecil a Biçuk û Mebdece.
Our forces correspondingly reached to the East of Tell Abyad town where a fierce fighting is taking place between our combatants and terrorist groups. Our troops similarly went on the move to cut enemy supply route that links their forces to Al-Raqqah, and could close in on the road within 4 kilometers.
Throughout the operations conducted in the past 24 hours a large number of terrorist fighters were killed and wounded.
It was in the course of those operations that one of our comrades was martyred as result of explosion of an IED planted by the terrorists.
During these times that Daesh terrorists are receiving significant blows in Rojava and Syria, some media outlets have falsely reported on civilian deaths committed by our forces in the region. Our Units know well that terrorist forces will not spare any effort to use civilian lives as human shields, for that, they are very cautious on how to move while advancing on terrorists’ bases.

People’s Defense Units (YPG) Press Office

[Sentinel]

Tell Abyad/Gire Spi fell to the forces of the YPG/YPJ and the Euphrates Volcano yesterday. Only small isolated and surrounded pockets of Daesh troops seem to remain here and there in the surrounding countryside. The city itself and the border crossing have been fully secured according to the YPG.

Kurdish media outlets were yesterday filled with pictures of celebrations as YPG troops from Cizire were welcomed by their comrades in once-isolated Kobane, after the territories of the two cantons had been linked up. Daesh, in the meanwhile has been reported to have begun building defensive fortifications around the city of Raqqa.

[Sentinel]

According to reports on Twitter the YPG reduced the pocket of Daesh forces to the west of Tell Abyad last night, many of the fascists fleeing over the border to Turkey. At the same time battle rages over the town of Ayn Issa between Tell Abyad and Raqqa, while Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that the YPG is sending 'hundreds' of troops as reinforcements from Cizire into Kobani canton.

I am stickying this thread as a newswire from Rojava. Title edited.

[ChangeAndChance]

Current status of the Wikipedia map posted above confirma that the cantons of Jazira and Kobane have been territorially united with only small pockets of ISIS resistance to the west and south of Tell Abyad.

[Sentinel]

Current status of the Wikipedia map posted above confirma that the cantons of Jazira and Kobane have been territorially united with only small pockets of ISIS resistance to the west and south of Tell Abyad.

There are actually three different maps on Wikipedia - one over the Syrian civil war, one over both the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts, and one called cities and towns in the Syrian civil war - all showing the frontlines slightly differently. According to the last one mentioned, which seems to currently be best in line with written reports online regarding the Tell Abyad front, the Daesh pocket to the west of the city has been defeated.

On the other hand it seems to show outdated info over the situation in Cizire canton. My point being, one has to take these maps with a grain of salt and compare different information to get an as accurate picture as possible.

[Sentinel]

Here are the maps from Wikipedia. As you all can see they aren't consistent with each other (I wonder who it is that updates them, anyway?). Anyway, they usually show recent changes, that can be verified by written articles and reports, fairly quickly and as long as one doesn't take them as some kind of absolute truth, are fairly reliable most of the time.

Syria and Iraq Onward War Map
Syria and Iraq Insurgency Detailed Map

Syrian Civil War Map
Syrian Civil War Detailed Map

[The Feral Underclass]

Daesh have been kicked out of Kobane again. The YPG/PKK have taken back control of the city after Daesh fighters launched a surprise attack over the last couple of days.

[John Nada]

Kurdish fighters say they have fully secured the Syrian border town of Kobani and killed more than 60 Islamic State (Isis) militants, two days after the group attacked it with suicide bombers.



Redur Xelil, spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, said about eight members of Isis had also escaped north towards the Turkish border after the Kurds pushed back.


“There are still search operations in neighbourhoods where they might be hiding. The town is quiet now,” he said in an online message.


In Syria’s northeast, Kurdish forces and the army fought separate battles with Isis around Hasaka city overnight as it tried to capture more areas of the major urban centre near the Iraqi border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Saturday.


In Kobani, the YPG blew up a school building used by Isis earlier on Saturday, the Observatory said, and plumes of smoke could be seen from the Turkish side of the border rising into the air.


Isis killed about 200 civilians in the town and surrounding areas during the attack, which started on Thursday, the Observatory said, describing it as one of the worst massacres committed by the group in Syria.


Kobani was the site of one of the biggest battles against Isis last year. The Kurdish YPG force drove the militants back from the town with the help of US air strikes after four months of fighting and siege.


The YPG previously described the latest attack on Kobani as “a suicide mission” rather than an attempt to capture the town.


In the northeast, Isis appeared to be attempting to wrest Hasaka city from government forces. Syrian state television said on Saturday the city was safe and under control, but the Observatory said fierce clashes continued in the southwest, south and southeast.


Hasaka is important to all sides fighting as it is positioned in an area that sits between Isis-held territories in Syria and Iraq, and reaches north up to the Turkish border.


The assault there will test the Syrian army’s capacity to hold on to areas far from the major government-held cities in the west. Xelil said the government forces appeared to be holding on to their positions early on Saturday.


Isis launched an assault on government-held areas of Hasaka on Thursday and the United Nations said the violence was thought to have displaced up to 120,000 people. Isis said on Saturday it attacked areas east of the city and in a video posted online claimed to have entered western areas.


Hasaka is divided into areas run separately by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government and Kurdish authorities and has a mixed population of Arabs, Kurds and Christians.


Isis has been back on the offensive after two weeks of defeats at the hands of Kurdish-led forces supported by US-led air strikes. This week, the Kurds advanced to within 30 miles (50km) of Raqqa city, the group’s de facto capital.


Late on Friday, Syrian information minister Omran al-Zoubi appealed to residents to take up arms to defend Hasaka.


While Isis had managed to advance slightly in Hasaka on Friday, seizing one army position, heavy Syrian air force strikes hindered the attack, according to the Observatory.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...uicide-attacks The attackers may have entered from Turkey. One attacker was captured.

[khad]

I've really avoiding commenting about the terrorist attack on Kobane because I don't want to end up saying something I'll regret regarding Turkey and the sleeper-infested Syrian countryside. During this whole ordeal, I saw various reports from social media indicating that some of the attackers even spoke Kurdish and were disguised in FSA and YPG uniforms.

Erdogan is now doubling down screaming about how he would never accept a Kurdish state. It seems to indicate that the AKP is now angling for an alliance with the MHP, which will be an alliance forged in hell. Fascists. Should've seen this coming. I hope they all fucking burn.

http://www.todayszaman.com/op-ed_why...ds_391751.html

Despite the slight optimism in this article, anyone who knows the history of the Grey Wolves knows that they are not above serving as the shock troops of islamism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_W...side_of_Turkey

[Sasha]

turkey planning to invade IS held area's in syria to prevent kurds from capturing the whole border region, army opposes; http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...g-the-war.html

[Sentinel]

turkey planning to invade IS held area's in syria to prevent kurds from capturing the whole border region, army opposes;http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...g-the-war.html

According to the fb page "Save Kobane" about an hour ago, the Turkish army has begun moving troops to the area, while PKK Executive Committee member Murat Karayilan has commented:

"We will say this loud and clear, If Turkey intervenes in Rojava, we will intervene against them. Turkey will become the battlefield."

[human strike]

Heavy military presence in border town of Roboski, where over 30 civilian Kurds were massacred by Turkey in 2011, lead to clashes with stone throwing civilians. Turkish army opened fire, wounding several. Several also arrested.

Turkish Air Forces bombed PKK this morning in Daglica. State claims PKK attacked the base there.

[The Feral Underclass]

I just heard about the Turkish army bombing PKK positions.

[Sentinel]

YPG has according to their homepage (www.ypgrojava.com) as of June 30th launched a major military campaign in the southern part of the Kobane Canton, to avenge the victims of the terrorist attack on Kobane city on the 25th of that month.

The objective is to seize the town of Sarrin in whose outskirts a previous offensive stalled in the spring.

[Sentinel]

Attaching a map of the frontline at Sarrin. I found it on the Save Kobane fb page. Besides portions of Daesh forces already being besieged in pockets outside, the town itself is nearly encircled by the YPG.

According to statements the morale and determination of the YPG is very high as this is not only about liberating the town but payback as well. Revenge by liberation of the oppressed - now that is a different story than how the enemy conducts themselves..!

[ckaihatsu]

http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/1137.php


Socialist Project - home
The B u l l e t

Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 1137
July 7, 2015

Socialist Project - home
The Women Combatants of Rojava

Interviews with commanders Abdullah and Rangin
of the YPJ (Women's Defence Units)

Isis chose the beginning of Ramadan to launch an attack on Kobane in an attempt to retake the city liberated by the Kurdish resistance this past January. No sooner was the attack repelled than Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan began brandishing his scimitar and deploying troops and armour to the border with Syrian Kurdistan, threatening to put an end to the project of democratic autonomy that Kurds are building in the three cantons of Rojava.

Below we publish interviews with two commanders of the YPJ given to the Italian leftwing daily Il Manifesto (June 24 and 26), explaining the role and goals of the YPJ. Nesrin Abdullah was interviewed while on a visit to Italy where she met parliamentarians, but also ordinary Italians during various events throughout the country. Commander Rangin was interviewed by telephone in Kobane while combat with Isis was taking place.

Commander Nesrin Abdullah:
The Other Half of Rojava

Giuliana Sgrena

“We are not soldiers, we are militants; we are not paid to make war, we are partisans of revolution. We live with our people, follow a philosophy and have a political project. At the same time we are carrying out a gender struggle against the patriarchal system. Other combatants are our comrades; we have political and friendly relations,” this is how Nesrin Abdullah, commander of the YPJ, explains to me the role of women combatants in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) and their relationship with the male People's Defence Units (YPG).

She is 36 years old, though in appearance looks younger, was born in Dirik in the canton of Jazeera, and is self-confident. Before being involved in the army she was a journalist. She is unmarried, as is demanded of all Kurdish fighters, men and women. From the time civil war erupted in Syria (2011) – and Isis (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) attacked Rojava destroying Kobane – Nesrin Abdullah was on the front line, and has become one of the ‘heroines’ celebrated not only in Kurdistan but worldwide.

“At this moment in Kurdistan the role of women is historic, not only for Kurdish women and those in the Middle East but also at the international level. Our struggle aims at the creation of a new society starting with an ecological vision, the respect for nature, and the affirmation of the rights and identity of women. The world today is unstable; there are many threats, among these is terrorism. As women combatants we have a lot of responsibility toward all women.”

Giuliana Sgrena (GS): Women who in the past took part in struggles for the liberation of their countries placed the rights of women in second place, thinking they would be achieved afterwards thanks to their contribution, but it did not turn out so. For you it is not like this...


Nesrin Abdullah. [Photo by Giu*liana Sgrena]

Nesrin Abdullah (NA): The world shifted from a matriarchal to a patriarchal system and women lost their identity. Patriarchy has oppressed women, they have also suffered physical violence, and despite struggling they have not succeeded in achieving a space within society. Nevertheless women have always striven for their liberty and their rights. Through our struggle we are realizing this dream. It is the struggles of previous years that have led to the creation of the YPJ; it was the example of the movement of the women of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), who for years fought in the mountains for their identity and freedom. Women have been protagonists of the Arab Spring yet this has not opened a path for the realization of their rights; instead the revolution in Rojava has shown the strength of women. Ours is a struggle in which everyone participates: from 7 year-old girls to 70 year-old women, this has allowed for a feminine presence in all areas, even in the military.

GS: Do you think that women combatants who confront the fanatic terrorists have caused a shock inside Isis?

NA: I think the presence of women among combatants has caused a breakdown in the convictions and maybe in the faith of Isis. They have always fought against armies of men and they also won, but now confronting women must have been a shock because they declared women to be the main enemy. Moreover, they immediately decreed that if a fighter is killed by a woman he cannot enter heaven and his body is burned. When they killed a women fighter they cut off her head and displayed it by the hair like a trophy. This act is the symbol of an ideological defeat for Isis. For us, in contrast, fighting this enemy has become a symbol of identity and has mesmerized and won the attention of Arab, Assyrian, Turkish and German women (among whom there has also been a martyr).

GS: Are there also Italian women?

NA: Italians that I know of no, but there could be.

GS: What is your relationship with the western coalition, in the past these interventions always failed. Do you think that together you will succeed in defeating Isis?

NA: We are fighting for democracy; our door is also open to the coalition if it wants to help us. Up to now they have helped us with bombardments, including heavy ones. We are hoping the assistance will not remain only at the level of bombing.

GS: Do you think a coalition led by the USA is interested in assisting your democratic project?

NA: So far the assistance has only been through bombing, which we well know has not been undertaken for us but to defeat Isis as a mutual enemy. But it must go further: Rojava needs international recognition, we will see if the coalition is willing to also give us diplomatic help. We demand an end to all massacres including to that of our identity.

GS: The first assistance could be to pressure Turkey to put an end to the embargo that prevents the passage of aid for Kurds.

NA: We think that if the coalition wants to, it could create humanitarian corridors. The borders need to be opened for humanitarian purposes, but we also need commercial relations.

GS: Can the success of the HDP (People's Democratic Party, a party of Kurdish inspiration) in the recent Turkish elections foster a change in the policies of Ankara?

NA: Certainly when a Kurdish party is strong it is an advantage for all Kurds. They are our representatives in Turkey, their victory is our victory. Important also is the fact they elected many women (31 out of 79), this is a terrific message to the Turkish parliament. The success of the HDP could encourage a common policy among the Kurds. We hope in addition that it helps to push Turkey toward a more democratic regime to also foster new relations with Syria. We want autonomy for the three Kurdish cantons, but our country is Syria.

GS: And what will happen in Syria?

NA: Syria has gone the way of a suicide bomber; there is now nothing on which to build. We are ready at the military level to construct a new democratic system but political engagement is necessary. The Syrian opposition does not have a project for the future of Syria and proposals cannot come from abroad; it could follow our example. We are not waiting for the situation in Syria to resolve itself in order to achieve our project for democratic autonomy as part of a democratic Syria. The model proposed from Rojava is popular at the international level because it guarantees everyone can live freely with their culture, identity and religion. We're fighting solely against Isis and are ready to defend the system we created; we are one pillar of our system.

GS: Yet the charter of Rojava foresees a demilitarized territory.

NA: We only want to maintain a self-defence force, to administer our territory. In the Middle East all peoples need self-defence.

GS: Do you plan on remaining in the YPJ in the future?

NA: Right now our people need to be defended, this role must be continued at this time. So for now I'm not thinking about anything else; if one day it is no longer required, I will work where necessary. In the past I was a journalist.

GS: What do you ask of Italy?

NA: Above all, political support for the international recognition of Rojava and then assistance for the reconstruction of Kobane, but also wider cooperation. In addition, the weapons we fight Isis with are obsolete, so we also need arms, but only for defence. •

Kurdish Commander Rangin:
“International Coalition Against Isis Only in Words”

Giuseppe Acconcia

“This is the moment that ends the isolation,” declared the commander of the YPJ, Nesrin Abdullah in a news conference at the Italian Parliament in Rome shortly after the new attack by Isis on Kobane.

To discuss the new crisis that is gripping the city, we reached commander Rangin (June 26th) by telephone at her headquarters in Kobane.

Giuseppe Acconcia (GA): What is happening in Kobane?

Commander Rangin (CR): The fighting continues. There are about a hundred Daesh [Arabic acronym for Isis] fighters holed up in the city carrying out summary attacks against the population.



GA: How do you rate the performance of the international coalition?

CR: They are not doing their best. Kurdish civilians are often killed in the bombardments. They happen by mistake, according to them, but we believe they want to maintain a kind of equilibrium between the jihadis and the Kurdish combatants. If the coalition wants to bomb a cigarette they do it. Sometimes we ask for targeted attacks and they say it's not possible to proceed. Many jihadi fighters have weapons from the United States or Turkey. Yet, for months we haven't received enough weapons. After the liberation of the areas controlled by the Syrian regime we reinforced the armed struggle but we are always more dependent on the support of the people than on arms.

GA: You joined the YPJ in April 2013 and immediately entered into the professional units. How is the YPJ organized?

CR: First of all there are the local self-defence units (Haremi), then professional fighters and finally the resistance units. Men leave the self-defence units to join the YPG; the more educated women often enter directly into the professional combatants. We are like every other army; we depend on the ideology of Abdullah Öcalan. But we are not only an army. In meetings we spend time discussing and self-criticizing. We are a defensive army. In order to fight, women must know why and for what to fight. For this we begin with ideological and academic preparation, because every YPJ fighter must know her own self.

GA: So the YPJ is an army of feminists?

CR: We stand for a radical feminism. We depend on ourselves and benefit from the experience of everyone. Women at home protect the essentialness of women. Our fight is as women (no matter if Kurdish, Syrian or European) and for a nationality that identifies with democratic autonomy and is opposed to the concept of the state. During the fighting for Shingal, women went to save other women. At Til Temir YPJ fighters went to save Arab women. We went to save dozens of women captives in villages occupied by Isis.

GA: One of the themes you deal with in YPJ training is “love and death.”

CR: Love is essential, it's part of everyone's instinct. The philosophy of death is a way of living. In past times everyone knew death could come quickly; now it is different and this disconnects us from nature and does not allow us to accept the idea of death. Religion exploits death: if you're a martyr you go to heaven. For us love and death are in contradiction: when we discuss it, it's to search for a new military, communitarian and quotidian life. Women are not made to only have children. We want to reform and renew the community. We also talk a lot about sensuality.

GA: How is the YPJ received by male comrades?

CR: Some men don't accept that their commander may be a woman. If in this context the women are soldiers, it's not in vain. We have to fight against the concept that many male comrades have of women. When we talk about it with a YPG member, it often happens that he changes his mind and understands that the men's units exist because the YPJ exists and not vice versa. We are not a military adornment. Many of our female fighters have been blown skywards by mines; they are commanders (the majority of them) of male units. There is plenty of autonomy regarding this. We have mixed battalions; in almost all battalions there are co-commanders. For instance, if Kurdish fighters do not commit ethnic cleansing after the capture of a city, it is mainly because our influence stops errors from being committed. •

Interviews translated by Sam Putinja, who wishes to extend a special thanks to Ali Behran Ozcelik.

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[Sentinel]

Daesh has monday evening made the claim that they recaptured the important town of Ayn Issa/Bozani on the main road between Aleppo and Hasakah, 50 km north of Raqqa. It was liberated from them by the YPG about two weeks ago, during the Gire Spi/Tel Abyad campaign.

The YPG however denied this, while admitting that Daesh launched a large scale offensive and gained entry into the town. Fighting was Monday evening ongoing in the southern part of the town to expel Daesh, according to Redur Xelil, YPG spokesperson.

Link

[khad]

Slightly unrelated, but an important update on all those women kidnapped in the Sinjar area last summer:

full article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/wom...e-horrors.html

After the attack, those who survived faced the seemingly impossible task of trying to rescue their women from Isil territory. No government has offered to infiltrate Isil and help free the women, and so it’s left to the Sinjar citizens to get their sisters, daughters, and mothers back.

One man, a lawyer named Khaleel al-Dakhi, is at the forefront of this improvised rescue mission. So far, his network has saved 530 women and children from the hands of Isil.

Today, Khaleel says that Isil is no longer the impenetrable force it once was, and a myriad of informants from inside the terrorists’ territory leak information on the power structure and its daily operations. But after the Sinjar siege, there was no information on where the girls might be imprisoned or even whether they were still alive.

Khaleel’s work began in September last year, when he started compiling details of all the women and children who had been kidnapped by Isil. After talking to every family from Sinjar, he had a list of more than 3,000 names. But the next stage – a rescue attempt – was far more difficult.

Isil has claimed the Syrian city Raqqa as their capital, but the terrorists’ territory is larger than Great Britain, spreading throughout Iraq and dividing Sinjar, which is home to the minority Yazidi community. The Isil border runs through Sinjar City, and the terrorist group controls 70 per cent of the city, the land to the south of the mountain and large areas to the west and east. The Sinjar women could have been taken anywhere within the Isil-controlled land.

“At the beginning, it was so difficult to rescue them,” says Khaleel. In fact, the very first girls who escaped Isil territory managed to do so without any outside help. “At the time, Isil was more focused on their weapons and weren't paying as much attention to the girls, which is why they managed to escape without anyone helping them,” says Khaleel. “Also, the borders between Isil and Sinjar were not as strong as they are now.”