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.
