The operation launched to liberate Tabqa from ISIS gangs continues. Several villages and hamlets under Tabqa have been cleared of ISIS gangs in the operation and the town is mostly surrounded. In the front, Kurdish and Arab fighters fight shoulder to shoulder. Two of these fighters are Bahoz Kendal and Sheikh Abu Ala.

With the fighters fighting shoulder to shoulder in the operation launched to liberate Tabqa from ISIS gangs, the fraternity of peoples is growing stronger. Kurdish fighter named Bahoz Kendal and Arab fighter named Sheikh Abu Ala who are involved in the operation are two examples of this fraternity. Kendal and Ala spoke to ANF about their goal and participation in the operation side by side.

Kurdish fighter Bahoz Kendal said they aimed to clear Raqqa of ISIS gangs. Kendal stressed that Tabqa is an important position for this goal and added: “With this, Raqqa will be easier. Right now, Tabqa is mostly surrounded. The wide circle and the narrow circle are at a good level. Gangs attempt attacks from places outside the circles, but every attack ends with them suffering losses and retreating. Their goal is to aid the gangs trapped in Tabqa, but these attacks are empty.”

Kendal also said they are in close contact with the surrounding villages in the Tabqa siege and that ISIS gangs have terrified people, and the people are filled with horror. Kendal stressed that the people have yet to get to know them and continued: “They think we will act like those people, but as they get to know us, this concern goes away. ISIS doesn’t represent the Arab people, and it doesn’t represent Islam. They are using both concepts. ISIS won’t manage to create fighting among peoples in these lands.”

Sheikh Abu Ala, Arab fighter in the same front as Kendal, said: “We are here to liberate Raqqa and Tabqa from ISIS gangs. ISIS wants to plant the seed of enmity among peoples. They want to turn the peoples of Syria, Arabs, Kurds, Syriacs among others, against each other. There will be no enmity among peoples. Peoples are brothers, and the biggest fraternity is experienced in the fronts and in the positions, and we experience the fraternity in these fronts and positions, stronger than ever. ISIS gangs have terrorized the people for the last four years, and they have become submissive. If a person smokes, a flutter of fear goes across their face but then when they see we don’t interfere with their lives, they warm up to us immediately. Now we live among the people here. They are glad to have us here, and we spend a lot of effort to relieve their fears.

Abu Ala said he was married with two children and concluded his speech with: “We are now in the conditions of war. I can’t tell what the war will bring, But I can say that my children will be proud of me no matter what.”