If there’s one thing to note about the Syrian conflict’s mixed bag of fighting groups, it’s that nothing is as simple as it sounds. Earlier this year we did a broad round-up of the parties involved — from Afghan Shiite militias fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s troops, to the foreign fighters who’ve become infamous poster children of Daesh’s grim recruitment success online.
Last month, AFP photographer Uygar Onder Simsek gave us more insight into the Syrian arena with a series of photos taken in the Syrian border town of Tal Tamr, where the Kurdish militia 'People's Protection Units', or YPG, is heading the fight against Daesh militants launching offensives on historic Kurdish lands.
In this series, Simsek focused on a collection of Westerners inside YPG, who, like Daesh recruits, came to find themselves on Syrian soil after social media calls to action and with a wide net of backgrounds spanning former US military and everyday civilians. Estimates say hundreds of Westerners have joined the Kurds so far and dubbed themselves the ‘Lions of Rojava.’
Check out Simsek’s collection of a few of the English-speaking YPG fighters joining the fight against Daesh.
(Photographer: Uygar Onder Simsek/AFP)
