Rojava–Islamist conflict
The Rojava–Islamist conflict, a major theater in the Syrian civil war, started after fighting erupted between the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and Islamist rebel factions in the city of Ras al-Ayn. Kurdish forces launched a campaign in an attempt to take control of the Islamist-controlled areas in the governorate of al-Hasakah and some parts of Raqqa and Aleppo governorates after al-Qaeda in Syria used those areas to attack the YPG. The Kurdish groups and their allies' goal was also to capture Kurdish areas from the Arab Islamist rebels and strengthen the autonomy of the region of Rojava. The Syrian Democratic Forces would go on to take substantial territory from Islamist groups, in particular the Islamic State (IS), provoking Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War.
| Rojava–Islamist conflict | ||||||||
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| Part of the Rojava conflict of the Syrian civil war | ||||||||
Territories held by the SDF (yellow), IS (black), the SAA (red), the Syrian National Army and Turkey (light green), Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (white), and the Revolutionary Commando Army (teal) as of November 2023 | ||||||||
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
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Syrian Democratic Forces And allied groups CJTF-OIR (airstrikes, arms, and ground troops) (from 2014)
Russia (airstrikes, arms and ground troops) Syria (arms, until 2016) |
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al-Nusra Front (2013–17)
Fatah Halab (2015–17)
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| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
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Salih Muslim Muhammad (PYD leader) Sipan Hemo (YPG general commander) Cemşîd Osman (YPG commander of Ras al-Ayn) Nujin Derik (YPG commander of Aleppo) Roshna Akeed (YPG Ras al-Ayn commander) Alaa Ajabu † (Jabhat al-Akrad general commander) Abu Layla (DOW) (Jabhat al-Akrad and Northern Sun Battalion commander) |
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi † (self-declared caliph) Abu Ayman al-Iraqi † (head of military council) Abu Suleiman † (replacement military chief) Abu Omar al-Shishani † (field commander in Syria) Abu Ali al-Anbari † (deputy, Syria) Abu Musab (IS emir of Tell Abyad) | Unknown | ||||||
| Units involved | ||||||||
| IS Military | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | ||||||||
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YPG: 65,000 | IS: Over 15,140 | al-Nusra Front: 5,000–6,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
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11,000 fighters killed 21,000 fighters wounded |
By YPG/SDF: 25,336 killed, 2,127 captured (YPG claim; 2013–2017 total) By US-led airstrikes: 9,145+ killed (SOHR claim, minimum, as of March 2019) | Unknown | ||||||
| Dozens of Syrian and 4 Turkish civilians killed and 100,000 Syrian Kurds fleeing to Turkey | ||||||||