People's Defense Units

The People's Defense Units, known by the Kurdish abbreviation YPG and also called the People's Protection Units, were a libertarian socialist Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces. Formed in 2011 during the Syrian Civil War, the force grew quickly and came to predominate over other armed Syrian Kurdish groups. It was made up mostly of Kurds but also drew in Arabs and foreign volunteers, was closely allied with the Assyrian Syriac Military Council, and fought alongside a sister militia, the Women's Protection Units. Its defence of Kobani in early 2015 brought air and ground support from the United States and other coalition states, and it fought chiefly against the Islamic State, occasionally against other Syrian rebel groups and the Turkish Armed Forces. Turkey and Qatar regard the group as a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a view not shared by key international bodies fighting the Islamic State.