Memories from Kobanê Part II

My name is Sorxwîn Rojhilat, I will tell you a little about my memories from Kobanê. The Kobanê war is something you can report, write and talk about as much as you like, but you will never finish.

Every friend who was there has their own experiences and stories. You can tell so much about each friend, about their willingness to sacrifice, it would take hours or days.

But I will tell you a little about it now and keep it short.

…the story before in Part I…

I tried to see through a hole what was going on and saw no one around the car. But I knew they had been there, so now there had to be a lot of wounded and killed.

When Daesh fighters get wounded, they shout, scream, pray to Allah, read the Qoran and call on Mohammed and demand to go to paradise, that’s their philosophy. Their voices were very, very loud and easy to hear. “So then go to Mohammed”. I got up and tried to clean my eye with my scarf. I realised that I had been hit by a stone and I bandaged my eye and then pulled up one friend after the other.

One of them I had brought from Botan the other a friend from Cudî. They were both hurled up in a corner. I called them to me and brought them out. Both had been here for two days, just like me, all the other had arrived six days ago. They hadn’t eaten anything, around their mouths was dry blood, the faces covered in dust.

No one is left behind – Heval Dijwar

Then I saw that Heval Dijwar had come. Heval Dijwar Koçer and I knew each other from the Botan mountains. He came in a group before us and had been here for a few days now. I told him that I had arrived only two days ago and explained the situation to him. He was part of a mobile force. They had chased and attacked the enemy just a little in front of us. Şehîd Egîd Pîr fell in this action and he had brought him in a house in front of us. “And now?” I asked him. He said “You know, I still want to get him out there.” He told me Heval Egîd had been shot in the forehead, he could not taken him further than he did, because Daesh was right after them. He didn’t wanted to leave him behind. The house was in front of us. After I checked, he said he was sure that the friend had been killed. He told me, he had checked for signs of life several times, calling him again and again, but there were no answers. Still he wanted to go back tonight, when it got dark again and get him out of there.

We didn’t think he was still alive, but then we heard a whining noise. We thought it must have come from him. So Heval Dijwar said to me: “Heval Sorxwîn, will you defend me?” And he ran right away. I switched my Kalashnikov to the automatic mode and fired without any interruption. Daesh did the same and all the bullets were flying around us. The distance between us was so short, everything just happened right around us. I fired at Daesh and while I was doing that, Heval Dijwar crept forwards towards the other house. He went into the yard of the house and there he stepped on a mine. It had been less than five minutes. I waited but there was no explosion. I called him: ‘Heval Dijwar’ but no answer. I tried to reach him and called again when he finally answered “Heval Sorxwîn, I saved myself”. The mine had exploded right next to him he said. I couldn’t believe it, but saw him on the ground. He didn’t move.

I called more comrades who were still in our house to help and first took care of them. I washed their faces and looked for food. I found a few tins of food in a fridge. They hadn’t eaten for days and so regained a bit of their strenght. I called one of them: “Come and back me up, I’ll try to move forwards to see how Heval Dijwar is.” He didn’t know where to aim, I showed him the top window where the attacks had came from. Then I went closer to Heval Dijwar. I had prepared two magazines for my rifle. He was lying on the ground. He said the mine had exploded next to him . I lifted his legs. They seemed fine. Then I saw that he had been hit through the forehead, but it had only hit the scalp not his brain. The wound was only yellow, no blood came out and I told him how lucky he was. Probably a stone had hit his head. I lifted him up a little to clean the wound.

Face-to-face with Daesh

The place where Şehîd Egîd Pîr still was, was surrounded by seven Daesh fighters. We were lucky. They had set an ambush for us, but now they had entrenched themselves in the house around his body. But as we had some experience in war, Heval Dijwar had just put his head slightly through the window and had kept his arms outside. Otherwise they would have had pulled first him than me into the house by our hands. I understood how he got his wound, sneaking through the window and as soon as he had realized the Daesh fighters ran away. Otherwise he probably had been disappeared and been executed.

Daesh was afraid of women. I had made myself an ammunition belt with 12 hand grenades, because I understood that the Kobanê war was a face-to-face war. The 12 grenades were my preparation for this. I was about to stick my head through the window when I realized breathing noises from inside like when someone is really excited and fast breathing. At first I thought it’s Heval Egîd and I wanted to check right away. My weapon was still on the ground where I had put it down, but when I lifted my head, one of the Daesh fighters looked me straight in the face, we were literally face to face. It was a very long and stocky guy, another one standing next to him and when I had him right in front of my face like that, I have to admit I got a shock. We looked directly into each other’s eyes, he also looked at me in horror, his mouth was open. I bend down to grab my gun, because he had his one ready to fire, but was also frozen for a moment. So I ducked under the window and grabbed my gun and both Daesh fighters started shooting at me through the window. They tried to aim downwards, but the shots flew over my shoulders. I ducked very quickly and only got a flesh wound. It was around 6am and I fell backwards onto the ground and because Heval Dijwar was already lying there, I felt on top of Heval Dijwar. I pulled out my hand grenade and threw one after the other into the window. I pulled out the safety rod and the ring of the first grenade and threw it through the window, then the second, the third and all of them exploded inside.

Nine chicks

The explosions stir up the dust and I heard screams from inside. I took my gun, pointed the barrel through the window and fired a whole magazin. As it was empty I put down the weapon to change the magazine and I realized that I had been injured in my arm. It didn’t stop me, rather I felt that I was even more ready. I shot all the bullets and placed the third magazine and went on. Then I heard a voice from above on their radio telling them to shoot at us. I took the fifth hand-grenade and threw it into the room and they shot at us with a rocket launcher. The whole front yard was full of smoke. We were lying on the ground in front of the window and the rockets targeted us from above. It hit a fuel depot and everything blast in flames. There was black smoke everywhere and dirt so I couldn’t see anything. But I found my weapon and the Kalashnikov from Heval Dijwar but I couldn’t see him anymore.

I had asked him to go out of the situation but he couldn’t get up. Now everything was in flames, black smoke and dust and the deafening sound of the grenades. I looked for him in vain but couldn’t find him. But I had to take his weapon and retreat out of the fire. I tried to hide behind a nearby wall, which was only a house’s width away from the comrades. From there we would have been safe. And then I spotted Heval Dijwar. He had already taken cover and only his legs were sticking out. You should have seen me in this situation. I had to stifle a laugh. How many times I had told Heval Dijwar to get up and into safe zone and he responded he couldn’t. But when the grenade launcher hit, he jumped up right away and came to the wall.

I pulled him all the way back behind the wall and asked him how he managed to get away so quickly. He just responded “Where am I?”. It wasn’t important now. I called the ambulance. Our ambulance of course was a motorbike. I had radioed Heval Gelhat to send one. The motorbike came zigzagging towards us, in such a speed that it was impossible for the sniper to aim. I pulled Heval Dijwar on the back of Heval Çekdar. He was wounded but not so bad that he would have fallen Şehîd, I somehow knew that. So I stayed behind alone. I spoke to Heval Gelhat again and reached out to our group of young comrades who were alive again. I also had been shot in my shoulder. You could see the bone. It wasn’t damaged but I lost a lot of blood. While I was walking my shoes soaked full of blood.

One of the comrades bound the wound with his scarf. [I thought to myself] If I would leave the comrades now, they would be caught by Daesh, I knew that. And they wouldn’t just shoot them, but behead them instead. That’s what I thought in this moment. Heval Diyar again and again told me to leave, but I couldn’t leave nine comrades behind in that risk. I radioed Heval Gelhat and said: “I am here with nine new chicks”. Someone with war experience had to stay with them. He still ordered me back and to the hospital. I replied: “Please don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I won’t listen to you, but as long as there is no one with experience, I won’t go and leave them alone.” I was wounded at 6am and stayed in position till 6.30pm.

After this time, Heval Rêber Çelê suddenly arrived. He told me about all his war experience from there and there. Heval Gelhat had sent him to replace me. He was in Serêkaniye, he said, and had a lot of experience. I accepted and described the situation, said that there is Heval Diyar and Heval Rojda and they are guarding the windows. Some would defend this direction and others those. I had made all their assignments before and had taken the body of the Team Commander Şehîd Mîran from the roof to us. I explained the whole situation and how he should treat them. After that I left. It wasn’t a long time since I had arrived in Kobanê and I already had to leave.

Relive everything again – Heval Rêber

I arrived in the hospital where they stitched my wounds. The doctor told me to stay for two days, but as soon as it was done I didn’t listen and went straight back to our place and Heval Rêber. We stayed together for five days. I hadn’t yet told Heval Gelhat that I was back. That’s not how you imagine a frontline commander to be like, but each of our commanders was in a place in the middle of the fights. You can’t really coordinate and do much planning. After a few days, Heval Gelhat contacted me to come to see him. Some comrades had come together and I should join too. He said: “We built a position when the shelling died down and the enemy had withdrawn a bit.” A large group of Daesh had just arrived and we needed to do some planning.

So it was needed to come together because they probably had planned to attack our front section. We needed to regain the houses in front of us before Daesh attacks us. Before I left I had to call our forces together. It was the first time I fought with Heval Rêber in the same place. I didn’t know him from before, we had never fought together before. I only knew his name Rêber Çêlê. He was a very likeable person and captivated the friends around him. He was a ‘warm-blooded’ person, you could easily build up a relationship with him. We became friends straight away.

We got the body of Heval Mîran down from the roof that evening. I went up the roof in a time of the day, when the sniper couldn’t see anything. Unfortunately we couldn’t recover the body of Heval Egit Pîr. Where he was lying, there were also corps from the enemy. And they were still there. I told everything I knew to the friends, before I left to the hospital. When I came back I asked Heval Sorxwîn Kobanê for his body. I checked the car with the dead friends. I only knew Heval Mîran, the one I had brought myself, the others I didn’t know, which one was Heval Egîd Pîr. She showed me the body of Heval Egîd. He didn’t look like a Kurd but rather Asian. His clothes were Daesh clothes. He was wearing the same dress and trousers like those worn by Daesh. Sometimes we do so when we got to civil missions, but he also had a headscarf like the Mahabad scarf. There was also a long thin one with asian eyes. After we waited a while, I got up and said I will go back to the house where the wounded had been because I wanted to know whether Daesh had taken out the bodies or not. I went back into the house where the action had happened before. I saw more bodies. Eight Daesh bodies were lying against the wall and I saw Şehîd Egîd exactly as we had left him. It was really a long time now, that he had lying there.

That seemed like a villager mentality to me. I gathered all the friends: “You went there to recover the bodies, how can it be that you left the body of our Heval Egîd?” One of the friends stepped forward. His name was Mehmo the brother of Heval Çiya Kobanê. He boasted and said: “No, these are all Daesh corpses, you can see that from their clothes.” I told him not to make such a fuss, that some of our comrades also wear these clothes to not attract attention. “We had two wounded Hevals just because we wanted to get Heval Egîd’s body out”. Of course we had fired back sharply and I had stayed there from morning till night with my open wound, covered in blood. I couldn’t get him put back then and the friends in the end approach this whole situation so superficially and left the body behind. I got upset with them, told them to do their job properly and so on. They thought I was crazy.

I then took a blanket and wrapped Şehîd Egîd’s body in it. I recognised him by the Mahabad scarf around his neck. That’s why I knew exactly which of the seven other corpses must be that of Heval Pîr Egîd. We recovered him and handed him over to the families of the fallen. In retrospect, I can say that it was about 20 days in total that had passed since the incident until I returned to the place where it had happened and I had looked through the window one more time, where I stood face to face with the Daesh fighter. It was like I lived trough everything once more. I screamed when I saw him there. The bodies were still almost intact, their faces were clearly recognisable, they hadn’t decayed yet. Besides Heval Pîr Egid, there were 7-8 more Daesh corpses, they all looked very scary, all very massive guys, with their faces with beards and they were all noticeably tall.

Anyway, so I learnt that we had killed at least 7 Daesh fighters through the ambush and our skirmish. Our comrades took the bodies away. I myself went back to the wall from which I had retreated and especially worried about Heval Welat. He was only a short distance away from the action at the time and Heval Gelhat had taken up position on another rooftop. I tried to call the friend with my radio, but I was new and didn’t know all the numbers, so I called Heval Gelhat again and asked what had happened to Heval Welat. He was all fine, he said. Those were the memories which stayed.

Heval Xwînda

I also remember Heval Xwînda. She was from Kobanê and YPJ. She arrived after Heval Çekdar had left. It was already dark then, when she came with another wounded friend. His name was Heval Rojhat Koçer and he was from the same group I came with. His shoulder was injured and Heval Çekdar had simply dumped him at ours. Heval Xwînda wasn’t older than 18 years. She said that her friend got wounded and was brought to the hospital. Without saying anything she remained very cold-blooded and stable postured. On her back she carried a bag with two ammunition chains for the heavy machine gun (BKC) as well as lots of grenades and some magazines for the Kalashnikov. I was very impressed. It was such a heavy bag, I couldn’t even lift it and the friend had just strapped it to her back, taken some water and went back to her point. I asked her: “Why are you going alone when its already dark?” She just said that new comrades had arrived from the mountains and didn’t know Kobanê. So she had to go back cause. “I am the only one who knows the streets and houses of Kobanê well.” And then I saw she was also wounded. She sat down to treat her leg. There was an open infected blood wound. She cleaned it, bandaged it and then brought the bodies, carried the heavy backs and food back and forth. You could feel this very special spirit of comradeship.

What does it mean to be commander – Heval Gulbihar

Then Heval Gelhat called me to come to him in the front position. First I should bring the wounded, so I did and after I went to his place. Reinforcement had arrived. Nine new comrades were immediately distributed to a position with few comrades. There was a house in front of us that we had just taken over and a position was to be set up there. The comrades who had just arrived from the canton of Cizirê were from Qamişlo and we took them to that house. It was clear we didn’t know them, the headquarter had sent them. We wanted them to take a new position in a house which Heval Gelat and me cleaned ourselves. We searched for mines and hidden Daesh fighters. Each group of us had a ‘Bayraz’, which is a kind of chisel that you can use to break through the walls if you are trapped somewhere and have to make holes in the wall. When we had placed the ‘Bayraz’ in another house we heard noises from Daesh. They came from everywhere shouting ‘Allah û aqbar’ and shot bullets at us. We took the nine friends to their new place. They were all young new comrades. When we tried to make one of them a commander, they all replied no: “I have no experience and I will not be a commander.”

That’s what all nine comrades told us one after the other. But they were sent to us for this very reason. They were supposed to be a mobile team. What does it mean to be a commander? You have a radio and you have to liaise with the others and pass on the reports to your friends, that’s all. But everyone said no, I don’t want to do that job. There were also two women friends among them. Heval Gelhat got angry with one comrade, he grabbed him by the collar, looked him in the eye and said, “If you don’t want to fight, then say so right away, are you an opportunist? Why did you come here and cause such a mess?” I intervened to mediate the situation. I told Heval Gelhat to relax and calm down. The comrade he accused of being an opportunist was also very upset. He was a BKC machine gun fighter and didn’t want to be portrait like that. I called the comrades to me. One was Heval Gulbihar. She came from Sêrt and was a very small friend. She had a black streak in her hair, I remembered her by that, and I asked her: “Why are you all leaving the newly built position? We built it for you, controlled and secured it, now it’s your job to fight in it, you’re a new force from Cizirê, why did you just run away and leave the position behind?” She asked me about my name and said: “You know, Hevala Sorxwîn, I’m a newcomer. I don’t really know the situation yet, and if everyone leaves and abandons the position, then I had to go out too, whether I wanted to or not.” I talked to her and without knowing her I handed over the radio to her and said: “You are now the commander of this newly arrived unit.”

I sent her back to her position. I didn’t know if she had any experience or not, but I gave her a phone with numbers and a radio and told her her job is to look after this group and their positions. If anything would happen she would have my number, should call me and I would come. In the whole time the shelling and shouts from Daesh continued. I showed the positions to them, we filled sandbags behind a window to secure our positions. I told them to keep their positions well and that they must not allow Daesh to enter the house. They must always be vigilant and push them back. So I had to leave them but had declared Heval Gulbihar their commander.

Less than half an hour had passed when she called me.

I asked how she was and if they had done their job. She said that they did everything like they were told and held Daesh back. I wanted her to set up a new guard and send the other one to sleep. If there would be anything more needed she should rang me. When we hang up I knew that this group would have no problems. As soon as a woman friend took over the command, things went well in the group.

The female comrades break the enemy – Heval Besra

In our front section every group had a woman commander. Whether it was Heval Nefel, Heval Berîtan, Heval Avaşin, Heval Zîn Sanzû or Heval Axîn, they all managed to break the enemy. It was the same everywhere on our front in ‘Kaniya Kurdan’. We always made woman our commanders. For example, there was also a Heval Besra. She had just left her place to tell me that she can’t command other comrades and tell them what to do. She told me that they had been attacked from both the front and the back. How was it possible that they were shot from behind? It was Heval Rubar’s group which was supposed to provide rear cover. But they had moved away and so the enemy could entered this gap and take position between them. That was why Heval Besras group was under fire from both sites. After this incident, Heval Gelhat came to me and said that Heval Narîn is asking for a woman commander. We should send women comrades. Really, in general we could say that women comrades did their work better. I was very pleased about that. I knew it from the mountains already. But here it was something new. When we had brought women comrades in responsible works there was a lot of suspicion around that the comrades would slow us down because of their physical differences. We knew such attitudes from before already. So I was really happy about that development. That for ‘Kaniya Kurdan’ Heval Gelhat told me that comrades from the other sections wanted reinforcement from our woman comrades. That was a huge strength. It was so nice to see that our deliberations and years of experience of women comrades in the mountains now showed their results within their strength. Its really a long term fight against this mentality and it takes a lot of stamina to conquer this battle of the sexes and now its bearing its fruits and we were in demand. Our group from Aleppo were mainly led by commanders like Şehîd Xemgîn, Şehîd Cudî and Şehîd Rênas. When we take all of our teams together it was obvious that our groups were led by women comrades.

Stubborn like a snake

For every place we fought and every house we liberated from Daesh, we saw that Kobanê is the moment and the spirit of resistance. For example, there was a house that was four levels high and very strategically located and therefore Daesh wanted to take it . But it was in our hands. Whatever weapons Daesh had at its disposal, they dropped them all on that house. But the comrades stayed, even when Daesh had placed a big car filled with explosives in front of the house and blew it up. It remained an unsuccessful mission for them. But they tried further. We had intercepted their radio communication at that time. They said this new group was like a snake that can’t be dealt with unless you cut off its head first before you can defeat it. So they planned to attack with four grenade launchers so we would have to ran away and they could enter to take our weapons. Their plan was to drop a few mortal shells and the grenades, as well as heavy machine guns and hand grenades. Their emir, who had sent this order, also said that these troops were so strong that when they started firing it would rain down like a hail of bullets over our heads. We further heard them say that this group was so stubborn no matter what you are firing, grenade launchers or air missiles they wouldn’t let go. You could only smash their heads like that of a snake. So that was what we heard over the radio and what one of the comrades was translating for us.

It showed once again clearly how our comrades were there. They never would have thought about abandoning their position and running away. Their awareness was high, they would hold their position until they either won or get killed. But they would never give up voluntarily. This spirit was such a clear stance, even when Daesh sent two suicide bombers. The spirit was one of defence till the end and to break the will of the enemy.

Everyday there were those small successes. Our front slowly moved forward. We waited for Heval Gelhat to send us an armoured dredger. There was only one in Kobanê and we all used it. Now it was still at the front section of ‘Qolbê’.

So because we listened to their radio we knew that they will move all their forces towards us. They wanted to close the access between or defence line and the open corridor and behind us we were blocked by the Turkish border. Daesh wanted to surround and cut us off so that there would no longer be an open back door to get in and out of the city. That meant that those who were inside would have been killed one by one and no supply could come through. That was their plan. We needed our own plan and wanted to move a few steps forward early in the morning. So we could reinforce our positions and extend them outwards. It was 3 in the morning and we were still waiting for the dredger to start.

Attacking Daesh…

The plan was made and we gathered our commanders. Heval Barîn Kobanê came, Heval Rêber, the Taxîm commander Heval Cemil Kobanê and Heval Dijwar. The digger should go ahead. 25 Daesh fighters were hurled up in a house in front of us. A first group to the left and the right of the vehicle should march forwards and clear up the area to this house. Then the third group should come.

We did so, but in double execution. We built six groups with the Guerilla tactic. The ones in the back to took the cover and then sneak upstairs and attack so we could take the whole building. We prepared ourselves. The digger came and went to the front of the house. We took fuel and petrol to the roof of the house and shot at the top of the window so they couldn’t get out. Heval Gelhat was on this roof with the petrol and fuel and we had made Molotov cocktails and threw them into the house where Daesh was. Everything was full of fuel. The sniper shot and we attacked. The house where Daesh was entrenched blast in flames. The few fighters who ran out where targeted by our sniper. So we had wiped them all out when the digger went over the first rubble and knocked down the house behind. Those first and second wave of attacks were very successful. The digger flattened everything down that was still standing with its lowered shovel and we were able to advance further.

For the second action we wanted one group to go alongside or behind the digger and the second would follow them. But we hadn’t realized that five Daesh fighters were hiding in the neighbouring house that wasn’t destroyed yet. Because we thought it was empty we moved calmly and even gathered in front of it. But these five always had their eye on us.

…and getting attacked

When the second group was supposed to walk next to the digger, five of those nine stood up, four were still sitting on the ground in cover. They had three Kalashnikovs and one grenade launcher when they attacked us. Heval Cemil, who had also come here with us from Botan, fell Şehîd immediately, the others were wounded. Among them was Heval Rêber and Heval Barîn, who had just come out and were hit by shrapnel. So many others were seriously wounded. Heval Gelhat could move himself relatively easily when the digger was gone.

I was in the ‘şems-şemal’ group of Şehîd Feyzal around Heval Abu-Leyla, which was led by Şehîd Dîrok. I was next to our heavy machine gun commander, Heval Ebdo. I was in charge of this group and Heval Gelhat was in charge of the one with the digger, so we fought side by side. In front of us was a visible road where a pigeon flew past, the sniper had caught it and it fell to the ground just in front of our eyes. That snipers were that good. Especially the Daesh snipers were really really well trained. I called Heval Gelhat and told him again that his moves were far to open. Three times I had already called him to cover. When I told him about the pigeon he just laughed. But as the war got more heavy and more and more friends died or got wounded his morale dropped. Heval Zarîn was in a position in front of us on the roof of a house and she was caught in the sniper’s crossfire after aiming at Daesh a few times. Her mistake was that she hadn’t changed her position and her hair was easily visible through the hole where she was aiming. That made her a target for them. I saw how he shot three times. One to the left, one to the right of the hole and the last one directly at her.

I saw it because suddenly there was turmoil. Hevala Zarîn was carried into a car and driven away. It was only about ten minutes later when Heval Gelhats group got into action. It was a very tough fight. Heval Cemal and Heval Ahmed were also there. We also sent the digger there, it got fierce. Heval Ahmed was driving the digger and got wounded in his stomach. Çekdar the young boy was also wounded. I went to him and saw how he had been shot many times in a row. When I went to him, I hoped the whole time that nothing had happened to him. He was such an energetic person who infected all friends around him with his spirit. He was so angry and shouted: “What are these fundamentalists up to, they are so filthy and deviant, with their ‘Allah û Aqbar’, we will chase them out of Kobanê and wipe them out.” He shouted this again and again. I tied the scarf around his wounds. He still had several hand grenades strapped around his whole stomach for his drives with the motorbike.

Rememberences – Şehîd Ehmend, Şehîd Çekdar and Şehîd Cemal

This picture of him, wounded in front of me, will stay in my mind. His warm youthful spirit and the lust for life, that was him. Its hurts me over and over. Of course we say every blood from our Şehîds is the same. But I can not forget his picture, how he had shouted so angrily at the Daesh fighters. He had already been wounded before, a hand grenade from Daesh had hit him in the leg and when I sent him to hospital at the time, he was back after just five minutes and wanted to continue fighting. I had asked him why he had come back so quickly, “you were injured”, he said “I had my wounds dressed”. He thought, “what am I supposed to do with the few splinters in my body in a hospital”. We were in war and had to fight Daesh. So he got on his motorbike and just carried on. At one point I saw that he was crying, a tear rolled down his face. I saw him once crying, a tear rolling down his face. He was wounded several times in different places, but he always came straight back and now in the very last operation he did fall Şehîd. Really I tell you, I was very sad abut his death. There are many of them, but Heval Çekdar really impacted me. He was literally everywhere, never stopped for even five minutes, always on the move.

Heval Ehmed who had driven the Digger had fallen, so Heval Cemal wanted Çekdar to come, to replace him, so Heval Ehmed could be buried. They were related. He already had driven the digger back and turned when I said to him: “What are you doing Heval Cemal”. He said: “Hevala Sorxwîn, my cousin Ehmed has fallen and my brother should come to bury him.” He also wanted me to come to the funeral to remember him. I stopped for a moment, but then the Daesh voices came back. There was no time, for something so necessary like remembering in the moment. And we had so many wounded and injured. The shouting from Daesh was so strong and if the digger would have left now, Daesh could come in the night and take our positions. We knew that they had received a lot of reinforcement. So I turned to Heval Cemal and said to him: “Look Heval, I totally understand, you’ve lost Ehmed and you want to bury him today. But please, if you drive ten minutes to bury Ehmed, 20 Ehmeds will fall Şehîd here in those ten minutes and that would be much worse.”

He remained silent for a moment and paused, he was also wounded, his forehead was bleeding. I cleaned him and hugged and kissed him on the spot. He really understood and decided not to leave but stay with us. So he went on with the digger but he didn’t came back any more. A sniper killed Heval Cemal through a very small hole in the digger. The six comrades who were in his group from Serhed tried to get him out. Then a grenade launcher was dropped on the machine. Heval Sînan and Heval Berxwedan went inside. Heval Ezda and Heval Rojda were able to throw themselves on the ground and were only wounded, but the friends who were in the digger and at its door were also killed. Heval Cemal was killed through the same hole as Heval Ehmed and Heval Sînan. Heval Berxwedan was hit in the eye and later also fell Şehîd.

…to be continued…