Syria: Kurdish Women Fighters Battle In Aleppo
Kurdish female fighters are the hidden face of Syria's armed rebellion against Bashar al Assad's government forces in Aleppo.
9:09am Monday 20 May 2013
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By Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondent in Syria
A helicopter gunship passes overhead, soon followed by the "crump crump" noise of weapon systems firing.
On the ground nobody moves, staying in the shadows waiting for the danger to pass.
A soldier waves me forward and I enter a building. It is totally black inside apart from the bright beams of sunlight streaming through sniper holes driven into the ancient rock of this hilltop building.
The snipers take their positions overlooking their enemies' positions across a clearing 200 yards away.
A female sniper takes up position
My eyes adjust to the dark as my nose adjusts to the fragrant feminine smell of shampoo and conditioner inside the room.
It is a revelation. I had heard of these fighters but I didn't expect to meet them so easily. A band of sisters. The most extraordinary latest development in this awful war.
They are Kurds. A women's brigade tasked with defending their own people.
They are young and attractive and are basically professional soldiers. Some have been part of the Kurdish militia since they were five years old.
"I have been a fighter since I can remember and I always will be," Delar Perlar, the 23-year-old commander of the brigade, tells me.
Delar Perlar, commander of one of the women's brigades
"We have martyrs from our group and we have injured girls. We are no different to the men. We respect them and they respect us. We are no better or worse than them, we are the same."
There are two known women's brigades in Aleppo and both fight for the rebel side.
These are front line combatants in an increasingly entrenched war of attrition that is seeing the government, for so long on the rocks, fighting back.
The Kurdish fighters are growing. Some 4,000 new soldiers are apparently on their way. Joining the increasingly sectarian conflict to provide security for their ethic cousins.
The problem for the rebels is that they are now almost completely dysfunctional.
Rebel fighters in Aleppo
There are so many groups with so many leaders ranging from committed revolutionaries to jihadists with foreign backers, charlatan jihadists who want local power, gangsters and uncontrollable foreign fighters.
It is a mess, and the government with support from Hezbollah and Iran is reinvigorated, making or taking back new and old ground daily.
But the revolution is ongoing. Huge swathes of the country are outside government control and the many, many people I meet are happy with that.
The rebels are now a total mix - some good, many bad, but there is a core with some integrity.
"I am here to protect my people, to protect my family first and to make sure that the revolution happens, then I will carry on and be part of the new Syria," says Janda Teoplin, a one-year veteran who looks only a few years older than my 12-year-old daughter.
"So you want to be a professional soldier?" I ask.
She laughs and replies "I already am", and turns back to her huge sniper rifle.
