Tag: PKK

Women in war, some changes on the battlefield

Hello everyone,

I have not been updating the blog for a while. I am sorry about that. The good news is I have been working on several new projects, some of those I hope to show you quite soon.

First of all let me tell you what I have been producing lately. For the website War Is Boring I wrote about Maria Giulia Sergio, aka Fatima. The 27 years-old became the first known Italian woman who has joined ISIS. She left her home town, few miles from Milan, in October 2014, and fled to Syria, where now she is a proud Jihadi bride. While living in the Islamic State she tried to convince her family to join her. Her parents and sister got arrested in one of the most important anti-terrorist operation against IS in Italy. If you want to know about her story, this is the link.

In the meantime I gathered even more evidence on ISIS women fighting on the front lines.  I have been showed a picture of women killed on the battlefields around Kobane, at the height of the fight. The person who took this picture doesn’t want it to go public. They were dressed in uniform and not wearing a niqab, they tried to blend in with male jihadi. There are three bodies amongst a group of seven. Also other YPG foreign fighters claimed to have a killed women fighting with Daesh. I will keep you updated on that.

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Why nobody talks about PKK fighters?


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This map has been published by the Institute for the Study of War on August 26. It is a report on Iraq. Airstrikes and major clashes are happening between Mosul and Erbil, claims the institute.  Pashmerga are fighting IS, with the help of “unknown gunmen.”  Everybody talks about the Kurdish fighters and of course about ISF – Iraq Security Forces. Very few people recognize the Kurdistan Workers Party aka PKK as a legittimate force on the ground, which is not just fighting but also rescuing civilians attacked by ISIS. It happened on Mount Sinjar, where, according to sources on  the ground, they were the only ones who pushed back IS and opened a safe passage for families and innocents to escape.

 

“We are alive just because of them. The Pashmerga left us there alone without even shooting a bullet,” said Faris, a 27 years old engineer, who is helping to set up a camp by the Iraq border with Turkey. Most of the Yazidi praise the PKK and some join their fight. About 2,000 of them are still on Mont Sinjar where US airstrikes are happening and coordinated with the help of some team on the ground . In the meantime PKK fighters are pushing back IS forces in Al Malakia, just at the border with Syria. The PKK is not fighting along side Pashmerga. The Kurdish soldiers are protecting Erbil while the PKK is on the field.

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“Yazidi women sold for 10 bucks” So, is it “mission accomplished?”

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While president Barack Obama declared U.S. Forces have accomplished their mission to rescue people trapped on Mount Sinjar, a group of Yazidi protested in front of the U.N. on Friday morning. About forty of them gathered in front of the HQ in New York, while a representative was inside meeting officials and asking for help. “IS [Islamic State] is still a great threat to our people,” they cried. They say the U.S. air strikes were not enough and there are at least 3,000 people trapped on top of the mountain. The situation, they claimed, is far from being resolved. United Nations officials agree with them and declared: “The situation is not over.” Many fear for women and children. The first, they claimed, are sold for 10 dollars and the second are being converted to Islam and forced to join the jihad.

“We need military and humanitarian support,” said to me Dakheel Zanadinan while holding a sign with pictures of slaughtered children. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he works for an NGO. He used to be an interpreter for US Special Forces in Iraq, he worked with them for years. Dakheel drove an entire day just to be here and protest against the U.N. lack of action. “My niece has been captured while escaping from Mount Sinjar,” he continued. She  is 10 years old and he does not know what to wish for her. If still alive, she faces violence and slavery.

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Benedetta Argentieri

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