JINHA

KOBANÊ – As YPG/YPJ forces continue liberating the villages around Kobanê from Daesh occupation, the liberation of Baxdikê village over the last few days has brought them close to GirêSpî (Tel Abyad) on the eastern front.

"We have promised to our peoples living here that we will continue our struggle until our land, our peoples and our leader are liberated," said YPJ Commander Sorxwîn Zagros.

After taking part in the heavy battle for the strategic hill village of Bexdikê on the eastern front, Sorxwintoured the YPG/YPJ emplacements to embrace the fighters as they rested after the battle. The advance is a historic one for Kobanê, which has been surrounded by an embargo for the last 4 years, even preceding the heavy Daesh assault on the city.

The YPG/YPJ victory in Bexdikê has brought the forces to the doorstep of GirêSpî, just 10 kilometers away as the crow flies across the flat plain. This is an important step in the forces' efforts to liberate the entire Kobanê Canton from Daesh occupation after the January liberation of the city center.

23 gang members and 10 YPG/YPJ fighters were killed in the battle for Bexdikê, in which YPG/YPJ forces seized a large amount of the weapons and ammunition that are crucial for the poorly-supplied forces.

Daesh gangs retreated to Xanê village, two kilometers away.Now, the red, green and yellow flag of the YPG/YPJ forces waves over the hill in Bexdikê.The YPG/YPJ fighters have also advanced into the tiny village of Îdanîye between the larger villages of Bexdikê and Xanê.

Sorxwînsays it has been a long journey to this point.As soon as YPG/YPJ forces removed the gangs from Kobanê's easterly neighborhood of KaniyaKurda in January, they began the clean up operation by pushing east out of the liberated city to the village of Alişar. Next, on February 15 (remembered as the "dark day" among Kurds, the day that PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured), they took a crucial hill despite the gangs' use of "Dushka" heavy machine guns. Now, they are closer than ever to totally liberating the canton.

She recalled listening to the gang members' radios after the liberation of the hill, as mixed amongst their begrudging insults against the YPG/YPJ they discussed their admiration for the Rojava forces.

"We obliterated many of the core Daesh cadres in Kobanê," she related. "Now the rest of them have forcibly conscripted the local villagers here. These villagers are being forced into war and at the same time, because they have little experience of war, they flee from explosions."

On the southern front, even if Daesh are using different strategies, they still find themselves face to face with YPG/YPJ forces who refuse to give an inch. "Next up for us is Serzorî Village. Our heroic fighters have turned the school in Serzorî into a castle of resistance. We've pledged to bring those comrades' dreams to life and to push the gangs out of Serzorî."

Sorxwin said that the goal of their forces was to protect all the peoples of the diverse region—Assyrians, Syriacs, Turkmens, Azeris, Alevis, Êzîdîs, Persians, Arads and Kurds. The YPG/YPJ intervention to protect the Êzîdî people of Shengal from genocide was just one example of the anti-fascist practice of the forces, she explained.

"All these people live together and in all their philosophies you can find the belief in living equally and freely," said Sorxwin. "We will do whatever it takes to protect all our people's values and to form a politically just society."

(öç-fa/mç/mg/cm)