ISIS women joining the frontline to fight

Something is changing in the Islamic State. Women travelling to Syria to join the terrorist group want to fight and they are travelling to the front lines in Iraq. This is the result of my latest reporting trip in Iraqi Kurdistan, where several military officials confirmed this new trend.

In Sinjar, one of the main front of the war against ISIS, both Peshmerga and YPJ told me about ISIS women having a very active role in the fight. I first talked to Beritan, a YJA Star brigade commander who heard a Daesh woman on the radio giving orders to men. “She was obviously a commander,” said Beritan while having a chai in her base in the outskirt of Sinjar city. Less than a hundred meters away Colonel Rafat Salim Raykoni said ISIS women are in Sinjar. “They are mainly snipers and work in logistic,” he added.

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Foreign Fighters, why do they join other people war?

There are many people who wants to join the YPG in Syria and the Kurds in Iraq. I have met some of them during my latest reporting trip in Rojava at the end of November. Most of them just wanted to go and fight the Daash (the Islamic State) others, mainly veterans, decided to leave their life behind also because they didn’t fit into civilian life. “Nothing makes sense,” said Jordan Matson, a former US army soldier.

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One day with the YPJ Sniper Unit in Rojava, Syria

I went to Rojava, Syria, where I was able to meet with YPG (People’s Defense Unit) and YPJ (Women’s Defense Unit) and understand better about their fight against the Islamic State.
A version of this article was published by Reuters Foundation and you can find it here.

TIL KOCHER (Syria) – A Makarov, a semi-automatic Russian pistol, is hanging next to a blue flower clock on an empty wall mounted coat rack. Her owner left it there for the night while sleeping in the one bedroom apartment on the second floor of an empty building in Til-Kocher, on the Syrian border with Iraq. Til-Kocher is one of the most strategic bases for the YPG, the Kurdish People Protection’s Army, in their war against ISIS.

Arin, a 27 years-old woman from Germany, was awarded the gun when she got twenty confirmed ISIS kills. That was months ago. Now, her Havel (Comrades and friends in Kurdish) claim she is one of the most dangerous snipers in the war against the Daesh, as they call Islamic State fighters.

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Dear Turkey, do you really need water cannons on refugees?

water-cannons

 

While Islamic State militants are sizing more and more villages in Syria, at least 130,000 refugees escaped into Turkey over the weekend. Many more are expected. On Friday reporters pictured men and women praising for help and implored Turkish border patrollers to open the fences  and just let them go through. Through the UNHCR, the UN agency dedicated to refugees, they finally got the access into the country. But as soon as they got in, some troubles started, since on Sunday they closed the borders again.

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Benedetta Argentieri

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