In Pictures

Meet the female Kurdish fighters battling ISIL

From Syria’s strategic Tishrin Dam, members of the YPG and YPJ have launched operations against ISIL.

YPJ women kurdish fighters/Please Do Not Use — Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella group that includes Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen fighters, watch over the Tishrin Dam. [Mauricio Morales/Al Jazeera]

11 May 2016

The Tishrin Dam, which provides energy to the Syrian city of Kobane, is one of the country’s heavily contested frontlines.

The strategic dam in northern Syria has changed hands numerous times, and was retaken from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) by Kurdish fighters last December.

Today, from this area, a coalition of fighters that includes the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG, and their female counterparts, YPJ) have launched operations against ISIL.