AL-TLEILIYE, Syria — A raised metal bed stands in a yard. The stench of rotting flesh chokes the air. A man in fatigues points to traces of blood blotting the earth, saying, “Women, children, they murdered them in their sleep. They even killed the dog; that’s what causing the smell.”
Djvar Osman is a commander for the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish militia that controls a band of mainly Kurdish-populated territory in northeastern Syria they call Rojava. We are in al-Tleiliye, a tiny village close to the Turkish border that was raided May 29 by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).