In 2016 I traveled to the front line on the outskirts of Raqqa. Members of the Kurdish militia known as the Women’s Defense Units had just captured a police station. ... On my last visit, I was out for a stroll in Amuda, a small Kurdish city in sight of the..…
Thus, after the 2014 ISIS capture of Mosul in Iraq and establishment of the Islamic Caliphate in Raqqa (Syria), Washington had armed three different forces – ISIS, the FSA and the Kurdish Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) to duke it out in northern Syria: One and all were aligned..…
Still, fighting flared near Manbij, a town west of the Euphrates River that Turkey has long wanted to wrest from Kurdish control. A mortar attack from Manbij hit Turkish forces, killing one soldier and wounding eight others, Turkey's Defense Ministry said. ..…
Ankara says it aims to neutralize the Kurdish YPG militia - the leading component of the SDF - which it views as a terrorist group because of its links to Kurdish separatists in Turkey. . ... Defense Secretary Mike Esper indicated on Sunday that one factor behind the U.S. pullout..…
SDF is focused on the border to protect their forces, Defense One, saying that as result, the fight against the terror group is paused. . U.S military backed mainly-Kurdish SDF in the fight against ISIS Syria beginning in 2016. ..…