With the uprising escalating into a civil war, Felat received just a few days of training before she was issued a weapon. As part of the Rojava-Islamist conflict, she went on to fight against Islamist Syrian rebel forces in the al-Hasakah Governorate campaign (2012–13). Around late 2014, however, she was in the Kobanî Canton and among the YPG/YPJ forces that ended up being besieged in the town of Kobanî by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). By this time a NCO in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ), Felat commanded a small, lightly armed squad of eleven other women during the siege.