Kurdish militants in Syria have trained hundreds of Yazidi volunteers to fight ISIS forces in Iraq, a member of the armed Kurdish YPG said on Sunday. Reuters photographer Youssef Boudlal spent Saturday at a training camp in northeastern Syria on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan, where he saw 55 Yazidis being trained to fight the Islamic State.
Dressed in green military fatigues and sweating in temperatures of over 100 degrees, young and old men were taught how to use assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. After several days' training they will be sent back to Mount Sinjar to fight, Anas Hani of the Kurdish YPG said. "In the past ten days, hundreds have graduated. And we are training more."