A young woman who travelled to Syria to fight jihadis on the frontline has revealed how ISIS thugs are ‘very easy to kill’ and children are rounded up to be sexually abused.
Joanna
Palani, then 22, gave up her life as a college student to become a
Kurdish fighter in the war-torn country, where she came face-to-face
with murderous militants.With the knowledge of how to shoot a
gun, she spent a year battling ISIS on the frontline, teaching other
girls how to fight and witnessing the brutal horrors of war.
Now
back home, Joanna has told of her experiences from her time abroad – and
the striking differences between the Islamic State and President Assad’s ‘killing machines’.
ISIS fighters are very easy to kill,” she told Vice,
laughing.
“ISIS fighters are very good at sacrificing their own lives,
but Assad’s soldiers are very well-trained and they are specialist
killing machines.”
Joanna, from Copenhagen, Denmark, left college in November 2014 to ‘fight for human rights for all people’.
She firstly travelled to Iraq, before moving on to Rojova in Syria.On
her first night on the front line, the young woman witnessed an
unimaginable sight – her comrade being shot dead by a sniper who had
noticed his cigarette smoke
She was forced to helplessly watch the Swedish fighter die, his blood drenching her new uniform.
In
subsequent months, Joanna reportedly discovered she had a talent for
shooting and keeping quiet at the right time, especially when faced with
Assad’s well-armed forces.
Having learned to fire a gun aged just nine, she also started
training young Kurdish fighters, many of whom stunned her with their
bravery in the face of possible death.
As she did, she received
horrific letters from girls in captivity, describing how they had been
brutally raped by fighters and were desperate to escape.
Even though I am a fighter it is difficult for me to read about how a
ten-year-old girl is going to die because she is bleeding from a rape,”
she told Vice.
At the beginning of 2015, Joanna was shocked to
discover a ‘holding house’ in a village near Mosul, Iraq, where young
girls were sexually abused and loaned out to fighters.
Joanna, now 23, later returned to her homeland while on leave.
However, she said she was only back for three days when she received an email from Danish police.
She said she was informed that her passport was no longer valid and
that if she returned to Syria or Iraq, she could be imprisoned for up to
six years under new laws.
These laws are intended to stop ISIS fanatics from joining the terror group in conflict zones.
Joanna
is now back studying politics and philosophy in Copenhagen – but can’t
help feeling like she has let down the trainee fighters and child abuse
victims she left behind.