Stories of Resistance of Age -6 

Fighters from Jabhet al-Akrad recount sacrifice stories in Shia district

TOLIN HASSEN – SHERVIN MOSTAFA / AFRIN

Shia district is located in the western part of Afrin canton which belongs to Janders district near the border between Bakur Kurdistan and Afrin canton. Shia district witnessed a historic resistance against the Turkish aggression and its mercenaries in the first stage of the Resistance of the Age. Although it is surrounded by artificial borders by 7 Km, the Turkish occupation was using the sophisticated weapons in the attack with all their military capabilities, warplanes, drones and thousands of mercenaries, but the fighters who participated in the defense stood in front of them and inflicted the occupation and its mercenaries with great losses.

This resistance has many chapters, its difficulties increased and many fighters sacrificed, in addition to the participation of YPG and YPJ and Jabhet al-Akrad forces within SDF. Some details of Shia's resistance are told by fighters in the ranks of Jabhet al-Akrad who took part in this resistance.

Warplanes were targeted populated villages

The fighter in the ranks of Jabhet al-Akrad forces Mahmoud Mohammed who participated with the rest of his comrades in the resistance of Shia recounts some of the resistance events that took place there and said, "In the first day of the Turkish aggression which began on  January 20, 2018 on Afrin, the Turkish occupation aircrafts targeted Shia district, then its mercenaries began to launch ground attacks supported by warplanes and artillery shelling to occupy the strategic areas in the district, but the resistance of the fighters there and the support of the people in the resistance thwarted the attacks and obstructed them several days."

He added, "Several days after the beginning of the attacks, I was sorted to the center of Shia to support the fighters of the People's and Women's Protection Units (YPG and YPJ) repelling these attacks, and on the first day of our arrival, there were no clashes and there was shelling with artillery and mortars on the villages of the district. On the next say at 6.30 am, the district was attacked by a violent attack involving about 300 mercenaries supported by three warplanes in addition to the shelling with the artillery and rocket launchers by the Turkish occupation army.

We were 7 fighters in that front. We distributed ourselves to several points to repel the attack, and as they approached Shia’s surrounding, the clashes broke out between us. We had only individual light weapons and hand grenades. Our resistance continued about two hours and we were able to kill and injure dozens of mercenaries. Then, the shelling intensified on our sites, and we have could no longer often move. What made the movement difficult was the reconnaissance aircrafts. The mercenaries benefited from this situation and surrounded us from 3 sides as there was only the back side to withdraw which became under the monitoring of the reconnaissance aircrafts. The enemy, in addition to bombing our points, was bombing the villages behind us to prevent the arrival of the support to help us although these villages were still inhabited.

The enemies were strengthening the siege on us over time and they were trying to surround us from all sides, but we dealt them strikes whenever they tried to circumvent and we did not allow them to besiege us from the 4th side. Clashes continued this way until the distance between us and the mercenaries has become no more than 75 m, and the fighters of YPG asked us to gradually withdraw to the hills behind us which were planted with olive trees, and that they will face the attacks until we all would come out and then they would follow us. Indeed, we started to move individually and headed towards the olive groves at the foot of the hills and hid under the trees on the outskirts of the village. The 2 fighters were repelling the attack until they made sure that we left.

And then we went through the trees and started to walk slowly up the hill and it was not long when we saw our comrades join us and we managed to get out safely. While we were walking, we saw 4 reconnaissance planes flying over the area that seemed to be looking for us. We scattered among the trees and rocks without moving. Whenever the planes were absent for a few minutes, we were moving several meters forward, and we kept moving from 10 am to 2 am until the planes got out of the area after they were desperate to follow us.

Then, we opened the wireless devices and contacted our comrades in the back villages and told them where we are and we do not know how to reach them. They told us that they are close to us and that they will send us a light signal to know their place and walk towards them, and we saw from afar light signals and headed towards them until we arrived. We were tired and we were no longer strong enough to stand up and we slept that night with our comrades.

3 fighters liberated a village and stroke the mercenaries

The next morning, we were instructed to go to Shikata village in Shia district and from there they sent us to points of concentration on the hills among the trees in a location between Shikata and Mirkan village which is Hesiay of Mobata district. Our point of concentration was opposite to al-Ezaa hill in Khalil village and the latter was occupied by the Turkish army and its mercenaries at that time.

And we stationed there 4 days, during which they attacked us 3 times with the support of the reconnaissance aircrafts and helicopters. Yet, we did not allow them to progress on the fronts where we were stationed in and we thwarted their attacks and forced them to retreat. On the fourth day of our presence on that front, we noticed the lack of warplanes and we did not know why the aircrafts got absent that day. We decided to take advantage of this situation. We were 3 fighters and we decided to carry out a qualitative operation on Khalil village to dealt blows to the mercenaries and the occupation army who were stationed there.

Then, we entered the village and clashed with the mercenaries. The sounds of bullets were heard and the occupation army and the mercenaries mobilized. They started to shoot fire intensively and randomly. They did not know from which side we attacked them. It did not take half an hour when all of them fled. The army and its mercenaries who realized that the warplanes would not come to support them fled the village. We combed the village. The blood was in almost all the streets and we saw a dead man, 7 mercenaries’ bodies among the village’s houses that they left behind and fled.

Then, YPG sent a group of fighters to take our place and asked us to return to al-Shahba because the occupation army and its mercenaries were attacking the villages of Meriamin, Anab, Mernaz and other villages along Shera and Sherawa districts and adjacent to al-Shahba villages.

Rescuing the injured fighters by motorcycle through rough roads

In the other villages of Shia and Mobata, the fighter in Jabhet al-Akrad Yaser al-Benwi was involved in the resistance. He was stationed on the fronts between Mirkan and Termisha villages, and about the events that passed with them, the fighter Yasser al-Benwi said, "My concentration point was with some of my comrades in Mirkan of Mobata district.”

The instructions came to send a group of us to the Maserka village to replace them with the group that was fighting there to get back and rest a little, so a group of fighters from Mirkan headed towards Maserka and the Turkish reconnaissance planes had tracked them and found out their location and at the junction of the two groups to replace, they were bombed by warplanes and some of them were martyred and injured and some have barely survived.

We had to use motorcycles to move between rough and forest roads and to go to where our comrades had been injured by motorbikes in batches. I had reached the wounded and helped them to get to the safe locations, and it was a very difficult and very dangerous process but we could only follow this method.

After the transfer of a number of wounded and at about 12 pm, I went and brought another wounded and then the mercenaries found out the road I took, and they were observing us from al-Ezaa hill which was occupied by them. As I was climbing the hill, the mercenaries fired me with medium weapons and the bike was hit and I fell to the ground with the wounded who was with me, and the bike no longer worked. I helped the wounded to get up and rushed to hide among the trees and behind the rock.

After that, the mercenaries started shooting us with shells. The first shell fell away from us. The second one was close to me and a shrapnel from the rocks hit my knee. However, I tried to rescue myself and the injured companion with me and moved slowly and cautiously under the trees in an attempt to reach our comrades' points in Mirkan village, but this time reconnaissance planes came and began hovering over the area and we lied down under the trees in order to not be found and bombed.

We walked a few meters as the warplane moved away a little and when it returned we were not move, we stayed this state for 4 hours and during that time, we cut 2 kilometers after we had become exhausted. Finally, we managed to reach Mirkan village where the injured were taken to Afrin hospitals. I received field medical treatment as my wound was light and then moved to the fronts of Termisha village.

The resistance of Termisha village and thwarting 3 attacks

Al-Benwi continued his talk about the resistance that took place in Termisha village and said, "After I went to Termisha village, the village did not witness any direct clashes and shelling of the warplanes for two days, except for the launch of the occupation army and mercenaries from time to time some of the shells that were landing on the village and its surroundings. On the third day in the morning, we received an urgent information saying that a group of mercenaries infiltrated and reached the entrance of the village at the first point at the junction of 3 roads.

We quickly formed a group of 6 fighters and I was among them. We went to that point and we were distributed on several axes and headed towards the crossroads to confront the mercenaries. We hid near the junction until the mercenaries reached the point and as they tried to advance towards the village, we surprised them by firing heavily at them. And the clashes took place between us and lasted for almost an hour after the aircraft came to support them and we hid under the trees. The mercenaries carried the killed and wounded and fled. Then, we managed to restore the point.

Al-Benwi added, "On the next day, the occupation army and its mercenaries launched an attack at about 4:00 pm. we were engaged in clashes directly by Mestku village side. We had taken our procedures before the attack and we confronted them. We killed 7 mercenaries and thwarted their attack again. 22 hours later, they attacked the village for the third time with the support of the artillery and tanks. However, we did not leave our points in the village and we faced these attacks. The clashes broke out between us from 4 pm until the dawn of the next day. In these clashes, a number of the occupation army and mercenaries were killed and forced to retreat for the third time.

We stayed for six days in the village. We did not allow the enemy to move forward and then our group that was related to Jabhet al-Akrad was asked to return to al-Shahba canton to face the attacks of the occupation army and the mercenaries there, and a group of YPG fighters took our place in Termisha village.

A fighter sacrificed herself to save her comrades and a citizen put his life in danger to deliver food to them

On the other side of Shia, specifically on Khalil village hill, there was a group of six fighters, including Adnan Abdul Aziz, a member of Jabhet al-Akrad Forces and two fighters of YPJ, one of whom was the commander of the group and Abdel Aziz told us what had happened to them in that resistance.

Abdel Aziz said, "We took our positions on the hill in the evening and stayed in the hill until dawn, and then, we heard the sounds of warplanes hovering over the area. We hid in the fortified places on the hill which the people and YPJ had prepared in advance for the air strikes. After minutes, the rockets destroyed everything and smoke and dust rose in the hill. I think that within five minutes, the warplane bombed the hill with about 200 shells. Luckily, we did not get hurt. The flight continued flying over the hill and shelling from time to time, and we could no longer move.

We were afraid that the mercenaries would take advantage of the situation and climb up the hill. After the planes had gone, we got out of our places and got off the hill and headed toward Shitana village.

In this village, we took the points of our comrades and the group that was moved to another village, and then Shitana village was subjected to intensive artillery shelling by the occupation army and its mercenaries who occupied the hill. The reconnaissance planes did not leave the area, and we stayed 6 days encircled in the village and in the last two days, we remained without food. At night, we were surprised by a person who entered the village from the back, we asked him about his identity. He told us that he was a civilian from the back villages. He brought us some food because he heard that we were sieged in the village.

This initiative of the resident aroused in our hearts feelings of enthusiasm and raised our morale. We thanked him for this action and asked him to return quickly before the reconnaissance flight would hover over the area to not be revealed. Before leaving, he asked us if we want to get out from the village, he would help us and guide us to the road that he came from. We told him that we would not leave the village until the last breath, and yet he guided us to a road through which we could get out of the village if the siege intensified on us and then he left wishing us victory.

The occupation army and the mercenaries tried to advance towards our points, but we were fighting them and we stayed for two more days until the mercenaries were about to besiege us from all sides and our ammunition began to decrease. Then, the commander of our group took a fateful decision and asked us to plan to get out of the village and she would stay alone and distract their attention so that we could reach the path that the citizen described to us.

We did not accept her plan, but she said, “I am the commander of the group and I give you instructions and you have to implement them. It is my duty to protect the comrades and this is my responsibility. In addition, if all of us remain with the small amount of ammunition, that is considered suicide and useless. You have to go out to be able to complete the resistance.” She managed to convince us to come out, and recommended us to continue and resist until the end.

She asked us to move alone and sneak among the houses to the outskirts of the village, while she began to repel the mercenaries’ attacks. She moved from one point to the other and fired from all points towards the enemy to deceive the mercenaries that the whole group was still fighting.

And then, we moved quickly and headed towards the road explained by the citizen which was a rough road and planted with large olive trees. We sneaked out of the trees and moved away from the village a little and climbed up a hill nearby it. From there, we began to monitor the village and saw armored vehicles and tanks of the occupation army and its mercenaries moving towards the village and entered its outskirts. The sounds of bullets were still heard from the village.

From our place, we started shooting at the mercenaries in an attempt to draw their attention to us. Perhaps we can ease the pressure on the commander to be able to get out, and we stayed shooting fire at them for more than half an hour. We fired from afar, but the mercenaries entered the entire village. Our friend did not come. And got regretful because we left her alone and we were sad and insistent to revenge for her. Then, we continued to march towards the points of our comrades and from then, we have not heard any news about her and we do not know whether she was captured, martyred or carried out a guerrilla operation.

The three fighters stressed that they continued the resistance within the first stage of the resistance in Afrin and al-Shahba until the announcement of the end of the first stage, and they rushed to join the second stage of the resistance which have been still going on so far to fulfil the covenant they made to their martyred and wounded comrades to continue the struggle to liberate Afrin from the occupiers and mercenaries.

A.H

ANHA