At 4 a.m. Wednesday, fog rolled over Ayn al Issa, a
desolate stretch about 30 miles outside Raqqa, Syria, the city that ISIS has
named its capital.
The Kurdish fighters had not slept. They held their guns and
kept watch from the sandbag berm they'd built. They could not afford to lose
focus. The enemy, they knew, would likely use the bad weather to their
advantage.
Part of the United States-led coalition, Ayn al Issa is vital. The terrorists depend on
its main road to transport supplies. The Kurds have won and lost and won the
area in the past. They know that to take it fully, they must be relentless.
"We are waiting all the time, we are ready for
them," the unit's commander said. He wanted to be called Rubar, but would
not, for his own security's sake, give his last name or age to CNN.
In a brief interview conducted over the phone with U.S.-based
reporters, the commander recounted what happened.
When the first pop of gunfire from ISIS fighters came, it
was clear the militants had used the cover of the fog to rush the Kurds, to
shoot at them within a few yards. The fighting was so close, ISIS fighters dove
behind trenches the Kurds had constructed.
At one point, a coalition airplane roared overhead, but had
to hold fire because of the risk of killing Kurds, Rubar said.
How long could a close fight like this last? 20 minutes? 45
minutes? Time is hard to measure when you're fighting for your life. Rubar said
it felt like three hours.
None of his fighters died, he said. And he was weary, but
proud to say they killed at least a dozen ISIS fighters. Some managed to
escape, disappearing into the fog.
The
Kurds did the work of every battle's end with ISIS. They stretched the enemy's
corpses' on the ground and, carefully, removed their shirts to make sure none
were wearing suicide belts. Then they quickly buried them. For the Kurds, even
an enemy who bastardizes a beloved religion, who kills your family and friends
and threatens your country, gets to be buried.
Hours after the fight, Rubar doesn't say he is exhausted.
His ragged voice does that for him.
Rubar told CNN that his soldiers don't have adequate supplies
and weapons. He worries about that. But he's going to keep fighting. His unit
plans to head into Raqqa.
He said he's unafraid. He knows he could die.
"I know that it's a big possibility," he said.
"It's a choice I make. I am ready for death and I accept it."
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