Syria's Kurdish force are battling against the Islamic State group as they wrested back towns and villages of the country's northeast under the cover of U.S.-led airstrikes.
The U.S. found a reliable partner in the People's Protection Units, or the YPG, the country's main Kurdish fighters who are moderate and secular fighters driven by revolutionary fervor and deep conviction.
"The YPG doesn't lack a will to fight, like soldiers in the Syrian army, or soldiers in the Iraqi army who mostly fight for a salary," said Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a Middle East analyst at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington. "The YPG is much more motivated than other forces in the region, and doesn't lack cohesion and doesn't have coordination problems."
"The YPG is quite ideological, while the Syrian and Iraqi army aren't very well motivated," van Wilgenburg added, the Associated Press reported.
The fighters have obtained back more than 200 Kurdish and Christian towns in northeastern Syria since the beginning of May, as well as the strategic Abdul-Aziz Mountain that became a militant base of the Kurdish. They also picked up ammunition, weapons and vehicles left behind by ISIS fighters.
Ghalia Nehme, a member of the Kurdish Women's Protection Units, said that a total of 425 square miles (1,100 square kilometers) were already taken from IS over the past three weeks.
Nasser Haj Mansour, a defense official in Syria's Kurdish region, said the YPG is in close contact with the U.S.-led coalition doing airstrikes on determined IS locations, AP reported
"Warplanes are not enough to liberate a region, but without the air force it will be more difficult," said Haj Mansour. "The push won't be as easy and fast."
The Kurdish fighters are getting close to Tel Abyad, and a successful offensive would open a direct line between Kurdish-controlled territories along the border with Turkey, U.S. News reported.
The move would most likely anger Turkey since it looks at YPG as a part of the Kurdish PKK movement that has engaged an anti-government insurgency in the southeastern part of the country.
As of Tuesday, the latest village that the YPG has taken over was Mabrouka, which resulted in the deaths of 532 IS fighters and the YPG getting closer to Tel Abyad.
