The United States is currently unsure if Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) fighters, who have reportedly received nearly 50 tons of ammunition funded by American taxpayers, will participate in the U.S. operation to retake Raqqa, the de facto Syrian capital of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), according to the Pentagon.
A dispute has arisen in Syria over the disposition of a fifty-ton ammunition shipment from the United States, supposedly intended for Syrian Arab rebel groups. The munitions were instead taken by the Kurdish YPG militia, according to both Arab and Kurdish commanders, although the Pentagon officially insists the shipment reached its intended recipients.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, reacted “positively” to the idea of working with some rebel groups in the region against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), particularly the Kurds.
Ömer Çelik, a senior official in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warned Wednesday that “Kurdish militia in northern Syria appeared intent on creating a de facto zone of control in the region.”
An American-backed Syrian Kurdish militia has joined forces with some Arab rebels and members of an Assyrian Christian group to launch an assault against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Raqqa, the jihadist group’s de-facto capital in Syria, according to a statement obtained by Reuters.
Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim argued this week that the overthrow of Bashar Assad’s brutal regime in Syria would be a disaster for the entire world.
Tensions between Turkey and the Kurds continue to escalate as Kurdish militia groups who have been fighting ISIS in Syria complained of coming under fire from Turkish forces. Notably, these are Kurdish militia units not direct affiliated with the PKK—the Kurdish separatists classified as terrorists by Turkey and subjected to airstrikes by American-made Turkish F-16 jets after several recent instances of violence.
The bodies of 13 Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) soldiers will finally be allowed to return to their families after 10 days held up at the Syrian/Turkish border, Turkish media reports. Despite having died fighting the Islamic State, their alliance with the YPG stains them with ties to the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)– Turkey’s number one enemy.
Relatives of fallen Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) fighters in Turkey say the Turkish government is denying permission for the bodies to return to Turkish soil to be buried. A group of 12 bodies, including that of a German national fighting in Syria, have been waiting in a refrigerated truck on the Syrian border for more than one week for permission to enter Turkey.
An Assyrian Christian militia group has asked NATO to stop Turkey from attacking Syria, since the military is shelling the Kurdish militia People’s Protection Unit (YPG). The YPG, and its female counterpart the YPJ, are seen by many in the region as the last line of defense from the Islamic State.
More than 850 suspects have been arrested in anti-terrorist operations across Turkey, launched against members of the outlawed Kurdistan’s Workers Party (PKK) and Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), Daily Sabah reports.
The Syrian Kurdish YPG/YPJ–or People’s Protection Units–issued a statement on Monday condemning Turkish airstrikes on strategic Kurdish posts. The Turkish government announced a new campaign, accompanied by the United States, against the Islamic State in Syria, but the Kurds and anti-Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) Syrian militant claim they are the real targets of the campaign.
The President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani, has appeared to take the side of the Turkish government regarding recently launched airstrikes against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), calling the U.S.-designated terrorist group “arrogant” and praising Turkey for taking a “positive” role in attempting peace talks with the PKK.
As the Syrian Kurdish army, the YPG and YPJ, continues its fight against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), a battalion of fighters’ mothers man the kitchens and galleys ensuring their armies do not go hungry.
Turkmen groups in western Syria, close to the border with Turkey, are working to create an independent militia to combat both the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and any advances made by the Kurdish YPG forces, which have been the only group to enjoy success in keeping ISIS from sweeping through Syria’s border towns.
As a variety of Kurdish forces continue containing the Islamic State’s advance in Syria and Iraq, leaders are becoming increasingly vocal about the establishment of an independent Kurdistan, with some sources close to the ground telling Fox News that Kurds are dedicated to the formation of a new state “whether the U.S. likes it or not.”
Turkey plans to deploy its army into northern Syria in an effort to prevent Kurds there from officially establishing their own state, reports The Daily Beast, citing both pro- and anti-government news outlets.
Reports surfaced over the past week of Islamic State (ISIS) terror attacks on the much-abused Kurdish border city of Kobani in Syria, but it now appears ISIS only recaptured parts of the town for a few days. Kurdish forces have reportedly driven ISIS from Kobani for the second time this year. The victory came at horrible cost, as NPR reports ISIS may have killed about 300 civilians over the past 24 hours, many of them slaughtered in a brutal house-to-house massacre.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) reportedly attacked the Syrian border town of Kobani from Turkey, an allegation that Ankara “strongly” denies.
Kurdish forces have successfully defeated Islamic State terrorists in a late Tuesday battle near the jihadi group’s headquarters in Raqqa, Syria. The Kurdish troops’s latest victory comes on the heels of a successful mission last week that saw its YPG-led forces capture a Turkish border town from ISIS, according to reports.
Contents: Syrian Kurd militias deal a heavy blow to ISIS; Turkey’s support splits between Kurds and ISIS; US support for Kurds further alienates Saudi Arabia; Understanding men’s moustaches in Turkey
Keith Broomfield is the first American to die fighting against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). His father told mourners at the funeral that God led his son to Syria to battle against the sadistic radical Islamic group.
Syrian refugees in Turkey are beginning to make their way back to their homes in the city of Tal Abyad after Kurdish forces there defeated the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), dealing a major blow to the jihadist group, reports Agence-France Presse (AFP).
American Keith Broomfield has been killed while fighting against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) as a volunteer with Kurdish units, according to reports on Kurdish social media. The U.S. State Department has confirmed Broomfield’s death and has been in contact with his family.
Troops loyal to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, backed by Kurdish fighters, repelled an Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) offensive to capture the city of al-Hasakah in northeastern Syria, a monitor group reports.
Michael Enright is one of the several hundred Westerners who have traveled to Iraq and Syria to join Kurdish combat units and fight the Islamic State. He’s an unusual volunteer in several respects: he’s 51 years old, the first time he handled a gun was at a shooting range right before he left for Syria, and he is almost certainly the only YPG fighter who has appeared in movies with Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp.
Kurdish news agency Rudaw published an interview with American volunteer Jordan Matson over the weekend. Matson, a 28-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Wisconsin, said he had no combat or even overseas deployments with the Army, but he decided to travel to Syria and fight alongside the Kurdish YPG militia “because they stood by the United States for 10 years while my country was in Iraq,” and he wanted to “repay that debt.”
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) charged into eleven of the 35 Christian communities along the Khabur River in Syria in February targeting Tel Tamer, which at the time was protected by Christian fighters and locals determined to defeat the terrorist group. This week, the Islamic State took another shot at conquering it.
The Assyrian International News Agency reports on the arrest of the latest Westerner to come home after volunteering for combat duty in Iraq and Syria. The twist in this case is that Matthew Gardiner was a politician of some prominence in Australia — he was the head of the Northern Territory Labor Party before departing for Syria — and he is in trouble for fighting against ISIS, as part of the Kurdish militia.
A crowd estimated at 2,000 turned out for the funeral of Ivana Hoffmann in Duisburg, Germany, over the weekend. Hoffmann, 19, was killed fighting ISIS in Syria as a volunteer in the Kurdish YPG force.
File this report from the Daily Star of Lebanon under the category of “Yay … I Guess,” or perhaps “Two and a Half Cheers.” It’s good news that Islamic State (ISIS) forces have been pushed out of over 20 Syrian villages. The bad news is that Bashar al-Assad’s regime did most of the pushing, with an assist from Kurdish militia units.
The Assyrian International News Agency reports a dash of good news from the bubbling cauldron of horror that is the Islamic State.
Having written recently about Westerners traveling to Iraq and Syria to volunteer for duty with Kurdish units against ISIS, I was sad to see the UK Telegraph’s report that the first such volunteer has been killed in battle. He was an Australian who fought under the Kurdish name “Bagok,” and he died while serving with the YPG militia in Syria, which has a battalion of foreign fighters known as the “Lions of Rojeva.”
Officials in Kobani, the predominantly Kurdish city in northern Syria, have been forced to construct hundreds of tents for residents whose homes have been completely destroyed in the ongoing civil war in Syria, Firat News reports. Much of the city, which sits on the Turkish border, was completely ravaged in defending against the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.
ISIS kidnaps around 90 Assyrian Christians in Syria; John Kerry says that Russia has repeatedly lied to his face
Islam forbids drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes, but rumors have spread for months indicating that members of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) terrorist groups engage in drug use. Those rumors were at least in part confirmed by a discovery this week when VICE journalist Joakim Medin identified cocaine in the house of dead Islamic State leader Emir Abu Zahra just south of Kobane, Syria.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) attempted to capture Kobane, Syria, in September, but have faced intense backlash. The Kurdish Peshmerga and People’s Protection Unit (YPG) now prepare to completely take back the town from the terrorist group.
