Kimberley Taylor (born 1989), also known as Zilan Dilmar, is an English fighter with the Kurdish Women's Protection Units (YPJ) and the first British woman to join a female militia in Syria. She is a member of the YPJ's combat media team and was present at the Battle of Raqqa in 2017.
Kimberley Taylor was born in 1989. Her father Phil is a former teacher. She was raised in Darwen, near Blackburn, Lancashire. The family moved to the Merseyside area when she was a teenager. She studied mathematics at the University of Liverpool. In her early 20s, Taylor travelled alone in Africa, South America, and Europe, and became active in left-wing politics as a writer for magazines and websites. [1] [2]
In mid 2015, Taylor travelled to Syria to report on the first anniversary of the Sinjar massacre of August 2014 for a friend's website. She was so affected by the plight of the refugees she encountered that she resolved to do whatever she could in the fight against Islamic State (ISIS). She returned to England for a short time and then began to study for a master's degree in political theory at Stockholm University, but in March 2016 travelled to Rojava in northern Syria to cover the beginnings of the Kurdish women's movement there for a Swedish newspaper. She embraced the anti-capitalist and feminist ideology that she found in the area and decided to abandon her studies and join the Women's Protection Units (YPJ). [2] [3] She is the first British woman to do so. [4] [5] She told The Guardian in February 2017 that her motivations for joining the fight against ISIS were "for the whole world, for humanity and all oppressed people, everywhere." [2]
Since joining the YPJ, Taylor has learned the Kurdish language and trained in weapons and battlefield tactics at their military academy, as well as studying the politics of the region. She has become a member of the YPJ's combat media team, producing photographs and video of YPJ actions, but says: "Actually most of the time I'm not doing any videos at all, but fighting with the unit when we come under attack". [2] She was present at the Battle of Raqqa and after the defeat of ISIS fighters there, has expressed a wish to visit family in the United Kingdom although she risks arrest if she does. [6]
The People's Defense Units (YPG), also called People's Protection Units, is a Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). YPG provides updates about its activities through YPG Press Office Telegram channel and social media accounts.
The Syriac Military Council is an Assyrian/Syriac military organisation in Syria, part of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The establishment of the organisation was announced on 8 January 2013. According to the Syriac Military Council, the goal of the organisation is to stand up for the national rights of and to protect Assyrians in Syria. It operates mostly in the densely populated Assyrian areas of Al-Hasakah Governorate, and is affiliated to the Syriac Union Party.
The Kurdish Front is a predominantly Kurdish Syrian rebel faction participating in the Syrian Civil War.
Euphrates Region, formerly Kobanî Canton, is the central of three original regions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, comprising Ayn al-Arab District of the Aleppo Governorate, Tell Abyad District of the Raqqa Governorate, and the westernmost tip of the Ras al-Ayn Subdistrict of the Ras al-Ayn District of Al-Hasakah Governorate. Euphrates Region unilaterally declared autonomy in January 2014 and since de facto is under direct democratic government in line with the polyethnic Constitution of Rojava.
The Women's Protection Units or Women's Defense Units is an all-female militia involved in the Syrian civil war. The YPJ is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the armed forces of Rojava, and is closely affiliated with the male-led YPG. While the YPJ is mainly made up of Kurds, it also includes women from other ethnic groups in Northern Syria.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is a Kurdish-led coalition formed by ethnic militias and rebel groups, and serves as the official military wing of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). The SDF is allied to and supplied by the United States–led CJTF–OIR international alliance. Founded in 10 October 2015, the SDF claims that its mission is fighting to create a secular, democratic and federalized Syria. The SDF is opposed by Turkey, who claims the group has direct links to the PKK, which it recognizes as a terrorist group.
The Êzîdxan Women's Units is a Yazidi all-women militia formed in Iraq in 2015 to protect the Yazidi community in the wake of attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and other Islamist groups that view Yazidis as pagan infidels.
Narin Afrin is the nom de guerre of Meysa Abdo, a leader of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), Women's Protection Units (YPJ), and Kobane resistance, notably during the 2014–2015 Siege of Kobanî.
The Raqqa campaign was a military operation launched in November 2016 during the Rojava–Islamist conflict by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Raqqa Governorate, with the goal of isolating and eventually capturing the Islamic State's capital city, Raqqa. The SDF's subsidiary goals included capturing the Tabqa Dam, the nearby city of al-Thawrah, and the Baath Dam further downstream. The campaign ended successfully in October 2017, with the capture of Raqqa.
Rojda Felat is a Syrian Kurdish senior commander of the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who has fought in the Rojava conflict since it began in 2012, and has led several major campaigns against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). A revolutionary feminist, Felat's stated goal is to achieve social transformation in the Middle East through the YPJ, "liberating the Kurdish woman and the Syrian woman in general from the ties and control of traditional society, as well as liberating the entirety of Syria from terrorism and tyranny".
In course of the Raqqa campaign (2016–2017), an international coalition, primarily composed of the Syrian Democratic Forces and CJTF–OIR, captured the Raqqa Governorate from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which had declared Raqqa city the capital of its self-proclaimed caliphate.
The Battle of Tabqa was a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) military operation against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to capture and secure the Tabqa Dam, al-Thawrah (al-Tabqah), Tabqa Airbase, and the surrounding countryside during the 2016–2017 Raqqa campaign of the larger Rojava-Islamist conflict of the Syrian civil war. The SDF assault began on 22 March 2017, and resulted in the capture of Tabqa and the Tabqa Dam on 10 May 2017. The SDF was supported by the United States-led CJTF–OIR coalition during the battle.
The battle of Raqqa (2017), also known as the second battle of Raqqa, was the fifth and final phase of the Raqqa campaign (2016–2017) launched by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against the Islamic State (ISIL) with an aim to seize the city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIL since 2014. The battle began on 6 June 2017, and was supported by airstrikes and ground troops from the US-led coalition. The operation was named the "Great Battle" by the SDF. It concluded on 17 October 2017, with the SDF fully capturing the city of Raqqa.
Arin Mirkan was a female fighter in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) who died fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the Siege of Kobanî on October 5, 2014. She fought on Mishtanour Hill with Rojda Felat, who later became the general commander of the YPJ. On the hill, Mirkan killed herself, along with numerous ISIL fighters, with explosives, to avoid being captured alive by ISIS.
Nesrin Abdullah is a commander and spokesperson for the Kurdish militia group YPJ in Syria. She has been active in communicating the progress of the Kurdish and Syrian Democratic Forces operation to liberate Raqqa from ISIS. She was born in Dirik in the town of Cizre.
Asya Ramazan Antar, also known as Viyan Antar, was a Kurdish Women's Protection Units (YPJ) fighter who has become a symbol of the feminist struggle in the Rojava conflict (Jineology) and in the fight against ISIS, by international media.
Hanna Bohman is a Canadian former model who decided to travel to Syria to become a fighter with the Kurdish Women's Protection Units (YPJ).
Anna Montgomery Campbell, also known as Hêlîn Qereçox, was a British feminist, anarchist and prison abolition activist who fought with the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) in the Rojava conflict of the Syrian civil war. She was killed in Rojava by a Turkish Armed Forces missile strike.
Kim Taylor may refer to:
James Charles Harold Janson was a British aid worker who joined the People's Protection Units (YPG) in May 2017 and fought against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Raqqa and the Turkish Armed Forces/Syrian National Army in Afrin.
