Manbij Kurds Abu Mahmut brothers taking part in the Operation Liberate Manbij are fighting shoulder to shoulder and day by day experience the excitement of getting closer to the city they had to leave together.
Dırgam Ahmet Abu Mahmut, 35, was born in Manbij. They had to leave their home town when the ISIS gangs invaded it. Dırgam Ahmet first joined the Free Syrian Army, and then immigrated to Kobanê. There he joined the Suwar Manbij initiative with his 4 brothers, 2 nephews and 2 cousins. He says, “We sit in the same trenches and fight together shoulder to shoulder with my brothers, it’s a wonderful feeling.”
Dırgam Ahmet says the operation launched on June 1 aims to rid the ISIS gangs of these lands once and for all, and that the reason for launching this operation is “most importantly, because the people of Manbij called on us. People of Manbij called on us to get rid of ISIS, regardless of their identity as Arabs, Kurds or other ethnicities.”
30 year old Mazlum Ahmed of the Ebu Mahmut brothers expressed his feelings as: “We as a family experienced all the damage ISIS inflicted on people living in these lands. I was not at ease with leaving the lands I was born and raised in like this. I couldn’t accept keeping silent in the face of these gangs. I am determined in the fight to rid these gangs of these lands for how they made my family and our people suffer. It is a great honour to take part in this war with my brother and relatives, and it is very exciting.”
The brothers take the utmost care in securing the civilians’ lives and property in the atmosphere of war. Mazlum stressed that all fighters risk their own lives at times so that the civilians will not suffer and said, “There are also civilians in this atmosphere of war. We are very cautious for them not to get hurt. The villages liberated from the gangs are turned back over to their owners. The right to life and property is always protected, and the villagers know this and are not afraid of us. When this operation was launched, the most important instruction given to the commanders and the fighters was that the civilian population must not be harmed. To this end, we move the people running from ISIS to take refuge with us to safe areas during the day, and rescue people used by ISIS as human shields in quite risky operations during the night.”
Abu Mahmut brothers issued a joint call and said: “All the people living in these lands should trust and believe in the liberation forces even more and shake this fear of ISIS off. The end of ISIS is near, the end of their empire of fear is near. Gather your courage. We call on every able bodied person who can hold a gun to fight against the atrocities of ISIS.”
