Stories of Resistance of Age-13

A fighter recounts  11 martyrs resistance, miraculous survival of death and capture

TOLIN HASSEN-SHERVIN MUSTAFA/AFRIN

All modern military techniques used by the Turkish occupation in its aggression on Afrin and the large numbers of mercenary gangs supported by the Turkish occupation army on Afrin did not prevent fighters of the People and Women Protection Units(YPG and YPJ) from continuing the resistance and defending their land and their people until the last moment. An unequal battle in number and weapons is the resistance of the fighters in Badina village in Mobata district. Some of the details are recounted by the fighter Rojhat, who participated in it and survived death and capture miraculously.

Badina resistance and thwarting the attack

The fighter Rojhat is 27-year-old son of Afrin. He participated in the resistance of Badina village of Mobata district with a group of fighters of the People's Protection Units. He recounts some events that took place in Badina village, "On the 35th day of resistance in the first stage, I was assigned by the leadership to Badina village of Mobata district. When I arrived in the village, there were 11 fighters guarding the village and attacking the enemy. I joined them and took my place at one of the village fronts."

He added: "On the first day of my presence in the village, the village witnessed heavy artillery bombardment by the occupation army and its mercenaries, so we deployed to some of the fortified points and prepared for the confrontation. We expected the enemy to launch ground attacks after heavy Intensive shelling and the destruction of many houses ,the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries began attempts to launch brutal attacks on the village and initially targeted the village hill in an attempt to control it easily. Accordingly, a group of our comrades took their positions on the hill and resisted the attacks. In the vicinity of the village, the mercenaries tried to encircle us from the western side of the village. They forced us to leave the village. But we resisted the attempts of their progress and inflicted them a lot of losses, and killed and wounded a number of mercenaries and after their inability to progress had to flee and left some of the bodies of their dead on the battlefield.

12 fighters faced 80 mercenaries backed by warplanes and artillery

After we broke the attack and the escape of the occupation army and its mercenaries, calm fell until the second day. On the morning of the second day, the artillery returned to shell the village, and we saw intensive movements of the occupation army and its mercenaries in the occupied Dumilya village. We realized that they were preparing for another attack on the village. After the artillery shelling, the Turkish reconnaissance planes flew over the village, and we started to take hidden positions and prepared for the confrontation.

In the afternoon, the attack on the village began again. In addition to the helicopter support, the occupation army and the mercenaries were backed by a number of tanks, and armored vehicles. The number of the occupation army and its mercenaries attacking the village at the time, was more than 80, supported by heavy weapons and warplanes. We only had light individual weapons and RPG launchers. However, we did not fear confrontation and decided to confront them. We deployed on several axes around the village. Then, the enemy attacked from 3 axes on the village, the first axis was on Dumilya from the west, and the second starting from the northern hill, and the third was on the southern side of the village.

Rojhat added: "beside that, the battle was unequal in the number of weapons but the thing that was obstructing our move is the reconnaissance aircraft which did not leave the village sky, and was bombing anything that moves in the area, so we decided to resort to the tactic of dragging the enemy to the village and then clash with them, to prevent aircraft and heavy weapons from the bombing, as we will be very close to the occupation and its mercenaries army, and it took some fortified positions and did not shoot any bullet towards the mercenaries to make them think that village is empty, while the mercenaries were firing shells and bullets randomly towards the houses of the village to make sure that there is no one, we stayed committed to our positions till the occupation and mercenaries entered the first houses of the village and then we went out of our sites and we targeted them from several sides.

After about an hour of clashes and painful blows to mercenaries and the occupation army, the enemy began to retreat and escape from the village protected by tanks and armored vehicles, and then the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries admitted the killing of 16 soldiers and mercenaries in the village and wounding dozens, and I expect the death toll was much higher.

A barbaric attack by the warplanes on the village

Our strikes against the occupation army and its mercenaries were effective, and we forced them to flee and return to Dumilya village, which is adjacent to Badina village."

After that strike and half an hour a squadron of warplanes flew over the village and began to bombard the village madly.

It was clear that after the failure of their attempts to occupy the village, they decided to destroy the village completely, so the aircraft bombed all the houses of the village and all points with rockets that were shaking the ground and the intensity of its power destroyed several houses in one strike.

Rojhat added, "We could not do anything against this barbaric bombardment. We tried to protect ourselves from shelling and dispersed in the village so that every fighter went to a place, but the shelling targeted everywhere in the village. I was in a house and I could not get out or move, on the edge of the house where I was and the roof and the walls fell on us, and due to the force of the strike, I lost consciousness and remained under the rubble.

Surviving death miraculously yet smartly

Rojhat added “I realized at that time that I was in a critical position and that mercenaries were surrounding me from all sides. I felt that my thinking had been paralyzed. I no longer knew what to do. I thought at first that I would kill myself so that I would not fall into captivity and put a gun nozzle under my chin and sit watching the mercenaries. I saw them moving in groups in the village and every group wearing military uniforms different from each other and some wearing clothes of our troops, some wearing civilians’ clothes, and each group linked tapes of some red and yellow on their hand, and I saw myself covering with dust which concealed the colors of my clothes and no longer know its color.

I thought of another way  to get out. When a number of mercenaries gathered on the rubble of the house under which they were searching for the stolen goods, shouting "Allah Akber" I took out a flag for YPG. I had a piece of tape and tied it around my hand and I hid the rest under the rubble. I said "Allah Akber " like them.

I moved from house to house and I shouted like them and passed several groups without noticing me or realize that I am not one of them, I looked around the village most of the houses were destroyed and some which half fell and the other half remained, and mercenaries and the occupation army were deploying with several tanks and armored vehicles.

I sneaked from one place to another until I arrived the outskirts of the village. Then the sun went down. I walked between an olive field and moved quickly between the trees until an hour later I arrived at the points of our comrades who brought me to the medical points and treated me. I was in it, and I learned then that no one escaped from the comrades of the fighters and all were martyred in the village .

Rojhat added, "The resistance of Badina has confused the occupation army and its mercenaries very much, and proved that the will of our fighters and their steadfastness is stronger than all their techniques and heavy weapons and the large numbers of their soldiers and mercenaries, and proved that the occupation army and its mercenaries cannot occupy land of Afrin without aerial bombardment, we will not abandon the resistance and we will remain loyal to the blood of our martyrs and escalate the resistance that is still continuing in its second stage until the liberation of Afrin and revenge for each martyr."

A.H

ANHA