A troop of female fighters has become a major force combating Islamic State (IS) extremists in the predominantly Kurdish region of northeast Syria.

Commonly known by its Kurdish acronym, YPJ, the Women's Protection Units is a women-only and pro-Kurdish militia set up in 2012 as a female brigade of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the main Kurdish military forces in Syria.

The group, in tandem with other Syrian Kurdish military forces, has been pushing west from the northeastern city of Hasakah for the past month to repel IS militants from the thin strip of land it controls along the Syrian-Turkish border.

In the ranks of the YPJ, many fighters are in their early twenties or even younger when they were recruited to fight against extremist insurgencies.

The women undergo weeks of military training including basic training on how to use AK-47s, heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other heavy weaponry.

Nineteen-year-old Roj Anas is a sniper in the ranks of the YPJ militia.

"First you should steady the rifle and find the balance point, then estimate the range and predict the direction in which an enemy is heading. Suppose you have figured out how far away your enemy is, you take aim and watch how he moves. After you learn about his movement, you shoot. In this way you can always succeed," said Anas, while demonstrating how to use a sniper rifle.

She added that patience is the key to becoming a good sniper and that they usually train for hours or days to learn how to stay concentrated.

Anas said she was in high school before being recruited 18 months ago and trained to be a sniper on the front line. To this day, she still remembers the fear she felt at the moment she realized she would have to fight in the battlefield.

"Back then, I was very afraid and I thought I probably would never come back. We were here for two days before the fighting started and we kept asking each other, 'What are we supposed to do? What should we do when confronting Daesh?' I felt terrified from the bottom of my heart," Anas said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

But months of fighting has turned her into an experienced sniper, she said, adding that she has lost many companions to the war.

"I remember one time when Daesh was quickly withdrawing and we had conquered almost every part of that region except a school. There was a container filled with explosives and as we charged forward, it exploded. I heard many people screaming. Some of them were killed on the spot. And the saddest thing is, one of my friends died holding my hand," said Anas.

She said that even though they are young, all the fighters have made their wills and are ready to die.

According to official statistics from the YPG, there are currently a few thousand troops in the women's wing, and of the 40,000 to 50,000 Kurdish troops in Syria, about 35 percent are women, most of whom are not married.
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