Meet America's Syrian allies who helped defeat ISIS

Najim Muhammad, 38, deputy commander

He is one of the four deputies to the U.S.-backed Manbij Military Council’s top commander, who is a Kurd. Muhammed said he has fought alongside the Americans throughout northern Syria, on at least 13 battlefields. “Before we used to just fight, and now since the Americans joined us, we’re in the era of organizing ourselves,” he said.

“In the beginning, they were just like advisers and didn’t go with us to the front line, but later they joined us there, too,” he said, referring to U.S. forces.

Four of the five times he was wounded, he was evacuated by U.S. medics.

Orhan Qamislo, 19, and Farhan Ebid, 38, militia fighters

Orhan Qamislo was a Kurdish fighter for the People’s Protection Forces, who helped the Americans defeat the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS and Daesh, in Manbij, which is both a city and a district in this region of Syria.

He was killed in battle in July 2016 at age 21. His father, Ebid, was also a Kurdish militiaman, stationed elsewhere. When the family heard that Orhan had died, his brother, Abdulrazaq, now 19, joined in his place and took his brother’s name, a common practice among Kurds. “When he took his name, it was like my son the martyr had never died,” Ebid said.

He and the new Orhan were visiting the older Orhan’s grave, festooned with his picture, to plant an olive tree in front of it.

Shervan Derwish, 42, spokesman

Derwish, a Kurd, is married and has five children, 1 to 13 years old, who live far from him so they can attend Kurdish schools. “A week ago, I went to see my kids, and I had to ask what grade are you in school now?” he said.

He began working as a civilian for the revolution, in Kobani, Syria, and was one of the first founders and organizers of the Syrian Democratic Forces. “I may be the media spokesman, but many times I’ve had to put down my camera and pick up my gun,” he said.

He said he felt that the public outside northern Syria was not very aware of what the Americans and the SDF had accomplished here. “We’re very proud.

We did something for our people, and for the world. Two years ago, ISIS was feared by the whole world. We gave to our people and to the world something very good. We did it with the Americans.”

Muhammad Gerah, 23, militia fighter

Gerah worked in a car wash in his hometown, Raqqa, until it was taken over by Islamic State fighters and his family fled to Turkey. He returned to Syria last year and joined the SDF.

This month, he was wounded by a roadside bomb and is now in the Tal Abyad military hospital recuperating from multiple injuries. The Islamic State group, he said, “was every bad thing in the world.”

Omar Maserli, 38, militia fighter

Maserli, an Arab who has been fighting since 2012, had trouble remembering all the many places he fought along with U.S. soldiers, but his boss counted nine, including Manbij, his hometown.

Maserli developed a skill for dismantling booby traps, which Islamic State fighters often left behind when they were defeated.

He was grateful to the Americans for supplying GPS and night vision equipment, which gave the SDF an edge over the Islamic State group, but he said, with all due respect, the local fighters were better than the U.S. allies at urban warfare.

“We are the owners of this land, and we know how to get in and get out, and in a street war, they always used to carry a lot of stuff with them, which we didn’t,” he said. “In a city, you have to be flexible and move fast, and they can’t.”

Muhammad Abu Adel, 39, militia commander

The commander of the Manbij Military Council, Adel is married and has seven children, ages 10 to 22. “This revolution has made me dizzy,” he said, by way of explanation.

Before taking over the command duties last year, he fought in at least 13 battlefields alongside the Americans. In the early days of U.S. cooperation, in 2014, “our skills were so primitive we would send tracers in the sky to guide the bombers to the targets,” he said.

“We didn’t know about map coordinates and GPS and all that stuff, didn’t even have internet and target maps like we have now. Before the revolution, I was a businessman. I never knew anything about military science.”

Zinareen Anas, 36, militia commander

Anas is the Euphrates Valley commander of the Women’s Protection Forces, a Kurdish militia that is part of the SDF. Like many of her fellow commanders, she has been wounded in battle, while fighting in Kobani in 2014. “Our commanders all lead from the front,” she said. Anas fought alongside the U.S. military in Manbij, Shadade and Al Haul, and last year in Raqqa and Deir el-Zour.

The U.S. Special Operations units always had one or two U.S. women, and they were quick to bond with their Kurdish counterparts, she said. Some of them were chagrined, she said, when they realized the Kurds were way ahead of them in battlefield equality.

“They had limited powers compared to us,” she said. “We can make decisions and everything without a man approving them, and they can’t easily do that. So you could say we’re more advanced than the American military, that way.”

During the Raqqa and Manbij fights, the women’s militia could sometimes listen in on Islamic State fighters' radio conversations. “It drove Daesh crazy to think women were fighting against them,” she said. “They used to say, ‘Let’s get one of their heads.'” They never did; no Kurdish woman was captured alive by the extremists, she said. “With Daesh, we always kept one bullet or one grenade for ourselves, and fought to the last breath.”

Agid Ahmed, 29, brigade commander

Ahmed, a Kurd and a brigade commander for the Syrian Democratic Forces, has been fighting alongside the Americans since 2014.

He was wounded four times in eight battles, from Kobani in the north to Deir el-Zour in the south. His unit was transferred from Deir el-Zour this month to protect Manbij against Turkish threats to the city.

He liked fighting alongside the Americans. “At first, the Americans were always behind the lines, we never saw them,” he said. “Then, after Kobani, they were on the front lines with us. We were happy to see them there, and they were happy, too. We used to sleep in the same places, eat the same food.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Meet America's Syrian allies who helped defeat ISIS

The joke about Muhammad, an Arab who is married with seven children between 6 months and 15 years old, is that every time he gets wounded, he goes home to recuperate and fathers another child.

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