Stories of Resistance of Age-5

A fighter narrated the details of the resistance of Sheikhourza, Qileh villages, their survival of the chemical bombardment

TOLIN HASSEN-GHANDI ALO / AFRIN

The exceptional resistance witnessed by Afrin in the face of the aggression of the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries and resistance in front of the sophisticated killing machine used generated the spirit of redemption and sacrifice among many fighters who increased their determination to continue the struggle and revenge for their martyrs .

One of the stories of the resistance that took place within the first stage of the Resistance of the Age was recounted by the fighter in the Women Protection Units (YPJ) Agirî Hawarî who was a participant and eyewitness to the heroic resistance in Sheikhourza of bulbul district of Afrin canton.

Participating in the resistance of Sheikhourza resistance was the first experience of Agirî

The fighter Agirî Hawarî recounted the story of her participation in the Resistance of the Age and focused on the resistance of Sheikhourza village of Bulbul district as it was the first combat experience in which she was involved in the face of attacks with aircrafts, heavy weapons and thousands of mercenaries. Agirî said, "On February 2, 2018, on the 13th day of resistance, I went with a group of fighters to Sheikhourza village to participate in the ongoing resistance against the attacks of the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries. We walked on a rocky road under the trees and behind the rocks of Sheikhourza Tahtani village, as the village is divided into two sections Sheikhourza Tahtani and Sheikhourza Fawqani, to avoid the reconnaissance planes of the Turkish occupation. 

At that time, the battles took place with all their strength in Sheikhourza Fawqani. After our arrival, we were divided into small groups consisted of 4 to 6 fighters for easing the movement and hiding from the reconnaissance plane, and we went to Sheikhourza Fawqani to support our comrades. We took our positions at some points that our comrades had previously held. The soldiers and the mercenaries entered the outskirts of the village. Our comrades decided to allow the mercenaries to advance more in the village until they were close to each other and force the occupation army and its mercenaries to stop shelling and flying.

And thus, we have reduced the intensity of the fighting and allowed the enemy to advance until they reached the center of the village, and then the shelling on the village decreased, and the possibility of clashes with the enemy face to face became easy, and this time we started to move towards the enemy points, and we clashed with grenades as it was not separated us in many places only a wall or a house.

Although our number was not a quarter of the number of the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries who were attacking the village, but we inflicted them with heavy losses of number, and we forced them to retreat slowly from the village. Despite this kind of fighting strongly and their approach to this degree to the enemy, it was my first experience, but I felt of great enthusiasm and fought with high morale because we were beating the enemy without losses until then.

Agirî added, "As we continue to fight amid the intensification of the clashes and moving from one point to another and from one house to another, suddenly, one of our comrades next to me got wounded, I looked at him quickly and saw the blood bleed from his body. I was shocked at first and I looked at him motionless. It was the first time in which I saw someone got hurt or targeted, and in the midst of my nervousness, the wounded fighter said, "Help me to remove the pouch."

After I bandaged his wound, I asked him not to strain himself until our comrades would come and treat him, but he did not listen to what I was saying. He moved towards one of the holes in the wall and began to monitor the movements of the enemy and shoot them, and when I saw his will, I felt stronger and continued to fight. It took several minutes when we felt that the sounds of firing from the enemy reduced, and then, a number of our comrades arrived at the point where we were stationed in, they told us that the mercenaries were fleeing the village.

In this way and in less than an hour of fighting, we were able to liberate the entire village and force the mercenaries to flee.

Intensive air raids and resistance until the last minute

The fighter continued, “After the liberation of the village and the expulsion of the occupation army and its mercenaries, the command asked us to fortify our positions and take the necessary measures to protect ourselves because it was expected that the air raids would be launched at any moment because the occupation army and the mercenaries fled. At that time, we made a group of fighters specialized in planting mines and planted a number of mines in the vicinity of the village from the expected attack by the enemy on the village after the bombing, and indeed ,we heard the sounds of warplanes were hovering over the area, and after several rounds accompanied by reconnaissance planes, the warplane began to shell the village, and was accompanied by the shelling with tanks and artillery, we fortified in several locations inside the village and the surrounding area, and before the evening, the occupation army and mercenaries advanced towards the village supported by aircraft and artillery.”

We returned and organized our groups again and distributed in the village and on the outskirts to repel the attack, and as the enemy approached, we began to shoot them so the pedestrians stopped and the tanks and armored vehicles began to progress.

  As one of the tanks arrived at the surrounding the village, one of the anti-tank mines planted by our comrades exploded at them. The tank exploded and burst into flames, killing everyone inside it.

And after the resistance for several hours in front of the warplanes and armored vehicles, instructions came to withdraw and head to Sheikhourza Tahtani, and we withdrew in the form of small groups and took our positions there this time, and therefore, the Turkish army and mercenaries occupied our positions in Sheikhourza Fawqani and began to shell Sheikhourza Tahtani by tanks and artilleries.

As we were repelling that attack, one of the shells landed next to the point where I was in and it was hit by shrapnel in my leg and fell to the ground. A fighter from the People Protection Unit (YPG) Azad rushed to rescue me, took me to a safe place and tied my wound to stop the bleeding. He said he would ask some of our comrades to take me to the cave to receive the medical treatment.

After that, other wounded came to the point and they told me a terrible story. They said that our comrade Azad was martyred while he was defending the village and trying to rescue the rest of his comrades.

The occupation army and mercenaries used chemical weapons

Agirî continued, “After heroic resistance of our comrades in Sheikhourza and inflicting significant losses to the occupation army and the mercenaries in the lives and equipment, the air force intensified its raids on Sheikhourza Tahtani. The air strikes shook the ground and we felt its strength inside the cave.

As night approached and the shelling increased, we were instructed to withdraw from the village so that many of our comrades would not be martyred. We asked them to help us to transport the wounded. They asked us to move quickly till we could get the help. The fighters began to help the wounded to get out of the village and the cave. We were exhausted. We chose rough roads with dense trees to go through.

To not be seen by the reconnaissance aircraft. The shells and rockets were landing on the village and its surrounding. The air was cold with light rain. Before we moved away from the village, we smelled a strange smell mixed with the smell of gunpowder.

After minutes, we got suffering from dyspnea and we could no longer walk so we got distributed among the trees and the rocks. Signs of rash and redness began to show on some of our comrades. One of our comrades said that he felt that we had been exposed to a chemical shell and our bodies began to sweat. As the rain intensified, we felt that we were regaining consciousness and we started to breathe better, it seems that the rain was neutralizing the chemical substances launched by the occupation army and mercenaries on us and we were transformed then to receive the medical treatment in Afrin city.

From Sheikhourza to Qile resistance in Janders

The fighter Agirî recounted and said, "After we received the treatment in Afrin and medical examinations conducted which showed that we were exposed to chemical gas, but the effects were weak by virtue of the rains so it did not affect us very much, and after my recovery, I was sorted to Janders district, and there, our comrades were distributed on the fronts during which the command formed a mobile group to carry out special operations against the occupation army and its mercenaries. 

And I asked to be among this group. Initially, they did not agree and said that your experience is still little for this task, but I determined to join it to avenge our martyred comrades and participate in striking the enemy, and after efforts, I was accepted to be a fighter within the mobile group.

After that, they asked our group to go to Qileh village to support our comrades and carry out the special operations when we would be asked to do so. We went to Qileh and took our positions in one of its fronts in the face of the attacks by the occupation army and mercenaries. And the occupation army and mercenaries were unable to progress towards the village. After the despair of the occupation and its mercenaries from occupying the village, they resorted to war planes and helicopters.”

The attack started with heavy raids on the village, many houses were destroyed and a number of fighters were wounded. We asked the rest of the fighters to help the wounded and our group would remain in the village until they could reach the wounded and come to rescue. Our comrades managed to rescue the wounded. Our group was consisted of six fighters remained in the village, and we were moving from one side to another quickly, attacking the ground attack and hiding from the aircrafts’ strikes.

Then, we decided to follow a plan allowing the mercenaries and the occupation army to enter the village to be able to get engaged in clashes with them in short distances and to reduce the shelling of the aircraft and artillery on us, and we retreated into the village until the occupation army and mercenaries reached the outskirts of Qileh village. Then, we fought them among the houses and the battles of light weapons and grenades began. As we are aware of the geography of the village well and how to move among its houses and the points that we have prepared before, we took advantage of them to dealt blows to the enemy and we killed and wounded many of them.

The heroic resistance of her group and being besieged

After that, the enemy surrounded us from three sides. The bullets, bombs and shells were landed from all sides. As a result of the intensity of the clashes, 4 of our comrades were martyred in the group, and another fighter and I remained. We tried to communicate with the command via wireless device to send the support and they told us that the reconnaissance plane was hovering around the village and bombing any movement in the vicinity and that our comrades were trying to reach the village but due to the difficulty of the situation and the bombing of reconnaissance aircraft, they cannot make any progress.

They told us to try to withdraw from the back side, and we kept resisting and moving from house to house and from street to street dealing the enemy blows until nightfall. The mercenaries thought that there were a lot of fighters in the village so they did not dare to approach.

After that the fighter Agirî participated in the battles against the attacks of the occupation in several other villages until reaching Afrin city and the end of the first stage of Resistance of the Age was announced. With the announcement of the second stage, Agirî was one of the participants, and it is still ongoing.

Agirî Hawarî concluded by saying: "The loss of a battle does not mean losing the whole war. Our resistance in Afrin is still continuing in its second stage and will not stop until the liberation of the canton from the occupiers and revenge for all the martyrs and the wounded and the people of Afrin."

A.H

ANHA