Rojava–Islamist conflict
| Rojava–Islamist conflict | ||||||||
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| Part of the Rojava Revolution | ||||||||
 YPG fighters waved their flag against ISIS in the Siege of Kobani, 2015. | ||||||||
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
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| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
 Salih Muslim Muhammad Mazloum Abdi Sipan Hamo Cemşîd Osman Nujin Derik Roshna Akeed  Alaa Ajabu † Abu Layla (DOW) |
 Abu Hafs al-Hashimi Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini † Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi † Abu Ibrahim al-Hashmi † Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi † Abu Ali al-Anbari † Abu Mohammad al-Adnani † Ali Aswad al-Jiburi † Abu Muslim al-Turkmani † Abu Ali al-Anbari † Abu Omar al-Shishani † Abu Musab | Unknown | ||||||
| Units involved | ||||||||
| IS Military | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | ||||||||
| IS: over 15,140 | al-Nusra Front: 5,000–6,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
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11,000 fighters killed 21,000 fighters wounded |
By YPG/SDF: 25,336 killed, 2,127 captured (YPG claim; 2013–2017 total) By US-led airstrikes: 9,145+ killed (SOHR claim, minimum, as of March 2019) | Unknown | ||||||
| Dozens of Syrian and 4 Turkish civilians killed; 100,000 Syrian Kurds displaced to Turkey | ||||||||
The Rojava–Islamist conflict was a major theater in the Syrian civil war (2011–2024) and Syrian conflict (until 2026) in which the forces of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria fought against Islamist militant groups.
Fighting erupted between the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and Islamist rebel factions in the city of Ras al-Ayn in 2013, and Kurdish forces launched a campaign in an attempt to take control of Islamist-controlled areas after al-Qaeda in Syria used those areas to attack the YPG. The Kurds' and their allies' goal was also to capture Kurdish areas from Arab Islamists to strengthen the autonomous region, initially known as Rojava. As Kurdish forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the military arm of the autonomous region, gained substantial territory from Islamist groups, Turkey intervened militarily against both the Islamic State and Kurdish forces.
The Islamic State lost the last of its territories in 2019, with the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani reducing it to insurgent activities already ongoing in Eastern Syria.
The conflict was ended following the integration of the autonomous region into Syria.