Kurdish forces swaps female ISIS captive for 50 Yezidi Kurdish women

Kurdish forces swaps female ISIS captive for 50 Yezidi Kurdish women. (Rudaw).

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A captured female member of the Islamic State (ISIS) group was swapped for 50 Yezidi Kurdish women in the hands of the militants, a Syrian Kurdish commander said.

Saeid Hussein, a commander of the YPJ, the women’s wing of the Kurdish YPG force that controls Syria’s Kurdish regions, announced the swap.

“We arrested two ISIS members; one of them was a woman. We exchanged this woman for 50 Yezidi women,” he said.

There was some controversy, however, about the details of the exchange. Some sources said the swap took place because the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) had paid to secure the women’s release – something it has been doing since ISIS attacked Yezidi Shingal and kidnapped thousands of women in August 2014.

Qasim Darbo, a Peshmerga commander in Shingal, told Rudaw that his forces had ordered the YPJ to go ahead with the swap.

“They had no choice but to rescue them (the Yezidi women),” he said. “We had a military order to fight them (YPG) if they had refused.”

Iranian news claims ISIL's Top Saudi Female Commander Killed in Hasaka.

Source. 

Iranian news claims ISIL's Top Saudi Female Commander Killed in Hasaka. (Fars).

Rima al-Jarish, the Saudi ringleader of ISIL's female fighters who coordinated the terrorist group's media activities, was killed in clashes with the Syrian army and Kurdish forces in Hasaka province on Friday.

Al-Jarish was the media coordinator of ISIL's al-Khansa Battalion in al-Shadadi town in Hasaka province.

Al-Jarish was wife of a Saudi inmate and mother of an ISIL commander who left Saudi Arabia for Syria in 2014 to join the ISIL.

On Thursday, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Kurdish “People’s Protection Units” (YPG) in a striking attack in Northeastern Syria forced the ISIL to retreat from vast regions in the Eastern parts of Hasaka Province.

The SDF and YPG won back the Assyrian-populated village of Al-Kharitah, also known as Gesaya, and four nearby villages around al-Hawl in Hasaka Province in a surprise attack as their other units have been striking hard at the ISIL, Al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham and other terrorist groups in the Northern parts of Aleppo province in Northwestern Syria in conjunction with the Damascus army, National Defense Forces and Hezbollah.

The YPG Kurds have recently bonded with the Damascus government. The Syrian army sent several arms cargoes to the YPG troops in the Northeastern province of Hasaka and trained the first group of Kurdish volunteer forces in the provincial capital city of Hasaka last week. Read the full story here.

Video - Russian Diplomat Maria Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva: 'De Mistura Must Fix His Mistakes Before Talks Over Syria Can Be Resumed'

Video - Russian Diplomat Maria Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva: 'De Mistura Must Fix His Mistakes Before Talks Over Syria Can Be Resumed' (Memri).

In an interview with the Syrian Sama TV channel, Russian diplomat Maria Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva said that U.N. Special Envoy for the Syria Crisis Staffan de Mistura had "committed several mistakes" during the preparations for the Geneva III Conference. "To this day, de Mistura refused to accept the delegation of the opposition coming from inside Syria," said Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva, the spokeswoman for the Russian Diplomatic Delegation to Geneva, in the interview, which aired on February 7, 2016. "This is a grave mistake, and we hope it is rectified before the talks resume," she said.

Following are excerpts:

Maria Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva: "Before the talks are resumed, de Mistura must resolve some problems pertaining to these talks. First of all, he should resolve the problem of Kurdish representation. The Kurds are an inseparable part of Syrian society, and unless the Kurds participate in the talks, it will be impossible to reach a decision on any article on the agenda, including the issues of a ceasefire, of combating terrorism, and so on.

During the preparations for the Geneva III Conference, de Mistura has committed several mistakes, including his refraining from forming an opposition delegation, which would represent the entire spectrum of the opposition.

"To this day, de Mistura refuses to accept the delegation of the opposition coming from inside Syria, and consisting of people who did not leave their homeland. This is a grave mistake, and we hope it is rectified before the talks resume. 

The fundamental reason for the suspension of the talks is the withdrawal of Riyadh's opposition delegation from the talks, and its insistence on its preconditions.  It is important to note that this contradicts U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254, which states that there must not be any preconditions. The government delegation came to Geneva at the scheduled time, and was ready to discuss all the articles on the agenda, which is very good...