The ISIS is now clearly a number one terror threat in size. Their barbaric acts have become all too apparent, and shockingly, they seem to continue their march into civilian regions, slaughtering men, women, and children with complete disregard to human life. Though America and Australia have begun aerial attacks, the ISIS fighters seemed to be gaining ground near Kobani, a relatively isolated enclave in Kurdistan. However, against all odds, a relatively puny force has positioned itself between the town and the ISIS fighters, and has surprisingly forced the terror organization to halt its march.
Earlier this week, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the isolated Kurdish enclave of Kobani was “about to fall” to a massive, sustained assault from ISIS, reported RT . A couple of days later, Rooz Bahjat, a Kurdish intelligence officer stationed in Kobani, said the city would fall within “the next 24 hours,” reported The Atlantic .
By today, the world expected to hear that ISIS has begun exterminating the local population with extreme prejudice. But, astonishingly, that hasn’t happened. As reported by The Daily Star , the ISIS forces have been stopped dead in their tracks and many “regiments” have been forced to fall back from their conquered posts.
Under the protection of air strikes orchestrated by America and its coalition forces, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have managed to push ISIS fighters outside several key areas.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, confirmed that ISIS fighters had withdrawn overnight from several areas, and were no longer inside the western part of Kobani. But that’s not all — Mustafa Ebdi, a Kurdish journalist and activist from Kobani, wrote on his Facebook page that the streets of one southeastern neighborhood were “full of the bodies” of ISIS fighters.
How has the poorly armed country managed to hold back the world’s largest terrorist network? Kobani has been under attack by 9,000 ISIS jihadists, armed with tanks and heavy artillery for nearly a month. They were being feebly challenged by just 2,000 Kurdish fighters with the YPG, the armed wing of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), without access to any heavy weaponry and short on ammunition.
However, the Kurds have something that no ISIS regiment will ever have. The Kurd ranks have been steadily filled by women fighters . A very large percentage of the YPG fighters who have been so good at killing ISIS jihadists are women, reported Al Monitor .
Many women have been emboldened by the thought that the ISIS militants strongly believe they won’t go to paradise if they are killed by a woman. Some even believe that women fighters make the ISIS nervous and hysterical .
Whatever may be the justification, the facts remain that the Kurdish enclave of Kobani is yet to fall into the hands of the ISIS, and the women fighters have a lot to do with this success.
[Image Credit | Flickr , eKurd]