By
Dave Holmes
September
2, 2014 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Across
northern Syria and Iraq, Kurdish forces are locked in fierce battles with the
murderous “Islamic State” (IS) armed force. Whether directly or indirectly, the
whole Kurdish people is being drawn into this struggle.
In
late August the Syrian Kurdish resistance forces announced they had defeated an
IS push around the town of Jazaa in north-eastern Syria, close to the Iraq
border. Hundreds of IS fighters were killed in the August 19-31 battles.
The
IS attempted to cut off the YPG-YPJ (People’s Defence Units-Women’s Defence
Units — the military arm of Rojava, the Kurdish liberated area in northern
Syria) from their forces over the border in Shengal (Arabic name: Sinjar). The
IS wants to establish a corridor linking Mosul and its possessions in Iraq with
Al-Raqqa, its main stronghold in Syria.