Syriac Christian female fighters battling IS on frontlines – Daily Mail

Babylonia has no regrets about leaving behind her two children and her former job as a hairdresser to join a Christian female militia battling against the Islamic State group in Syria.

The 36-year-old soldier from the Syriac Christian minority in northeastern Syria believes she is making the future safe for her children after joining a new all-female Syriac militia.

“I miss Limar and Gabriella and worry that they must be hungry, thirsty and cold. But I try to tell them I'm fighting to protect their future,” she told AFP.

Babylonia belongs to a small, recently created battalion of Syriac Christian women in Hasakeh province who are fighting ISIS.

They are following in the footsteps of Syria's other main female force battling the jihadists - the women of the YPJ, the female counterpart to the Kurdish People's Protection Units or YPG.

Although the new militia group is small, it is expected to grow in size.

One of its training camps has already produced around 50 graduates in the town of Al-Qahtaniyeh, also known as Kabre Hyore in Syriac.

The militia is known as the 'Female Protection Forces of the Land Between the Two Rivers,' referring to the area between the Tigris and Euphrates waterways historically inhabited by Syriacs.

Babylonia revealed it was actually her husband who encouraged her to leave their children Limar, nine, and six-year-old Gabriella, in order to join the unit whose first recruits graduated in August.

Babylonia's husband is also a soldier and he urged her to take up arms to "fight against the idea that the Syriac woman is good for nothing except housekeeping and make-up”

“I'm a practising Christian and thinking about my children makes me stronger and more determined in my fight against Daesh (ISIS),” added Babylonia.

Syriac Christians belong to the eastern Christian tradition and pray in Aramaic. They include both Orthodox and Catholic branches, and constitute around 15 percent of
Syria's 1.2 million Christians.

Before the conflict began in March 2011, Christians from some 11 different sects made up around five percent of the population.

The unit's first major action was alongside the newly created Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Kurdish, Arab and Christian fighters, which recently recaptured the strategic town of Al-Hol.

“I'm a practising Christian and thinking about my children makes me stronger and more determined in my fight against Daesh (ISIS),” added Babylonia.

Syriac Christians belong to the eastern Christian tradition and pray in Aramaic. They include both Orthodox and Catholic branches, and constitute around 15 percent of Syria's 1.2 million Christians.

Before the conflict began in March 2011, Christians from some 11 different sects made up around five percent of the population.

The unit's first major action was alongside the newly created Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Kurdish, Arab and Christian fighters, which recently recaptured the strategic town of Al-Hol.

With its limited combat experience, the unit for now focuses mainly on protecting majority Christian parts of Hasakeh province.

Thabirta Samir, 24, who helps oversee the training, estimates that around 50 fighters have graduated so far.

"I used to work for a Syriac cultural association, but now I take pleasure in working in the military field,' she said.

"I'm not afraid of Daesh, and we will be present in the coming battles against the terrorists.'

Samir said both local and 'foreign forces' helped train the women, without specifying the nationality of the foreigners.

In late November, Kurdish sources said US soldiers had entered the town of Kobane in northern Syria to train Kurdish fighters and plan offensives.

Some women cited what is known as the Sayfo ('Sword') massacres in 1915 of Syriac, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians as reasons for joining the unit.

“We are a community that is oppressed by others,” said 18-year-old Ithraa. She joined four months ago inspired by the memory of Sayfo, in which Ottoman authorities are said to have killed tens of thousands of Christians in Turkey and Iran.

She said the community hoped to prevent “a new massacre like that committed by the Ottomans... when they tried to erase our Christian and Syriac identity”.