Forced recruitment of children continues by Kurdish militias: A girl kidnapped in Ayn al-Arab

The Kurdish Revolutionary Youth militia, affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), kidnapped 15-year-old Kurdish girl Wahida Makhiz Najm al-Din from the village of Birka in the Ayn al-Arab (Kobani) countryside on June 1, 2025, with the aim of forcibly recruiting her into its armed ranks, according to local sources.

The sources indicated that the girl was transferred to one of the militia's recruitment camps, while her fate remains unknown at the time of writing this report. Activists on social media posted a photo of the family book proving the identity of the child. She is the second child born to Najm al-Din Makhiz and Zuleikha Hassan, born in the town of al-Farazdaq on December 1, 2009.

This incident once again highlights the grave violations committed by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and their youth wing, the Revolutionary Youth (Jawain Shorshkar), by recruiting minors into training camps and then sending them into armed conflict. These practices continue despite repeated condemnations from human rights organizations, amid alarming international silence.

In a similar incident, the PYD militia handed over the body of the child Laith Hammadi al-Khalif to his family in the city of al-Shaddadi in the Hasakah countryside, after he was killed during his forced recruitment into the militia's ranks. The child had been kidnapped and recruited by "Jawain Shorshkar" after undergoing a strict ideological indoctrination process targeting minors.

Anadolu Agency published a report last year revealing the systematic methods used by the PKK and its Syrian affiliate, the PYD/YPG, to recruit children, particularly orphans who lost their parents in the war. According to the report, these children are transferred to closed camps where they undergo rigorous ideological and military training before being assigned to so-called "adult battalions" upon reaching the age of 16.

These organizations prevent the children's families from communicating with them and even accuse those who request to meet them of "espionage." Some families have been arrested and tortured, adding a new layer of human rights violations in northeastern Syria.

Fares Al-Rifai - Zaman Al-Wasl