In March of 2015, Kurdish-led YPG/J guerrilla groups forced Islamic State (ISIS) militants to retreat in many regions of Cizîrê Canton, Syria. The Islamic State's territorial losses left behind bodies of jihadist soldiers, abandoned bases and an underworld of clues to their state-building aspirations.
In March of 2015, Kurdish-led YPG/J guerrilla groups forced Islamic State (ISIS) militants to retreat in many regions of Cizîrê Canton, Syria. The Islamic State's territorial losses left behind bodies of jihadist soldiers, abandoned bases and an underworld of clues to their state-building aspirations.
The region of Tel Hamis had changed hands many times before YPG/J’s victory here. Previously, Jabhat al Nusra and Ahrar ash-Sham also fought for authority of the area. The compound the Kurdish guerrilla soldiers slept in sat at the foot of a giant concrete grain storage facility, previously a barrack for Islamic State soldiers. It’s rotund, mammoth gray silos added to the Orwellian feeling of the place. In order to reach sleeping quarters, soldiers walked up several flights of stairs where every inch of wall was marked with jihadist graffiti in both Arabic and Kurdish dialects. Generators ran all night and the YPG/J were rotating patrols to constantly remain on the lookout.
The following afternoon, I had the opportunity to explore some of the buildings. Given the cavernous structure of the grain silos, every step produces an audible echo. It was dank and musty throughout. An occasional but perceptible chill swept through one of the many holes in the thick, concrete wall— created from the constant bombardment of artillery exchanged between militant squatters. I was warned by the YPG/J to not disturb the ground or open anything with a door; the Islamic State is well known for booby-trapping areas they retreat from with explosives. I used my iPhone as a flashlight to uncover many curiosities: medical supplies for treating wounded soldiers, stolen ID cards of massacred Iraqi Security Forces, bullet holes from target practice. In one of the rooms lay a black flag of Tawhid. The previous owner’s intention was to fly this flag as a symbolic proclamation of monotheism. Yet with the jihadists forced into retreat, here it was, dusty and disheveled among the ruins.
An important distinction must be made between the ideology of the Islamic State's jihadist soldiers and it's political ringleaders. It has been shown that the overarching leadership of the Islamic State and some of their top military strategists actually come from the Baath Party, formerly under Saddam Hussein. Despite the ISIS propaganda videos we see showing them as a prophesied, unstoppable conquering force, here they lay like anyone else, lifeless on the battlefields of Syria. Once the Islamic State is ultimately defeated, a territorial battle may be won but an ideological war may still remain. In our lifetimes, we may see a war not only fought on soil with crumbling buildings and wavering borders, but also a war of internal ideologies, naked to the human eye but pulsing and vivid within the human heart.