page_title: Syrian Democratic Forces
section_title: Alleged war crimes
hierarchical_section_title: Syrian Democratic Forces / Alleged war crimes
caption_attribution_description: Türkçe: Barış Pınarı harekâtı sonrası Kamışlı'da yaralandıktan sonra bir ayağı kesilen diğer ayağı da kırılan 8 yaşındaki Sarah.
context_page_description: The Syrian Democratic Forces is an alliance in the Syrian Civil War composed primarily of Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian/Syriac militias, as well as some smaller Armenian, Turkmen and Chechen forces. The SDF is militarily led by the People's Protection Units, a mostly Kurdish militia. Founded in October 2015, the SDF states its mission as fighting to create a secular, democratic and decentralized Syria. The updated December 2016 constitution of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria names the SDF as its official defence force.
  The primary opponents of the SDF are the various Islamist and Arab nationalist rebel groups involved in the civil war, in particular the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, al-Qaeda affiliates, Turkey and their allies. The SDF has focused primarily on the Islamic State, successfully driving them from important strategic areas, such as Al-Hawl, Shaddadi, Tishrin Dam, Manbij, al-Tabqah, Tabqa Dam, Baath Dam, and ISIL's former capital of Raqqa. In March 2019, the SDF announced the total territorial defeat of the Islamic State in Syria, with the SDF taking control of the last stronghold in Baghuz.
context_section_description: On 15 March 2017, a video surfaced that showed members of the Northern Sun Battalion reportedly torturing an ISIL fighter, who had been captured while planting mines. One of these mines had reportedly killed nine fighters of the battalion, leading five others to take revenge on the ISIL militant. The Manbij Military Council condemned the act, and announced that the involved Northern Sun Battalion fighters would be held for trial for violating the Geneva Conventions. The five accused were arrested on 17 March.
caption: A girl from the Syrian city of Qamishli who lost her leg during the Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria in October 2019
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