| Train 'em all to fight, hardening their communities against attack in the future, not to mention easing the burden on the Kurds to protect them. |
"During the reporting period, reports of a large conscription campaign being launched by the Kurdish Self-Administration in SDF-held areas in north-eastern Syria emerged," the UN said.
"The campaign reportedly targets men between 18 ‐ 30 years, irrespective of place of origin and ethnicity and allegedly includes IDPs, even if originating from other governorates. Hundreds of young people have been reportedly recruited over the past few days," the UN office said.
According to the laws of the three local self-administrations of Rojava-Northern Syria [Cizire, Kobani and Efrin], people between 18-30 are conscripted into the self-defence forces, also known as HPX.
More than 500 fighters of the self-defense forces have joined the 3rdphase of the Euphrates Wrath Operation to liberate the city of al-Raqqa in February, the Kurdish news agency ANHA reported.
In an interview with ARA News, Washington-based analyst Nicholas A. Heras, Bacevich Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), said: "The SDF has entered the phase of its operations that will require more manpower, particularly for providing security in the Northern Syria Federal Region and in holding newly conquered areas from ISIS, whether near Raqqa, or potentially further east in the area of Deir ez-Zor."
"The SDF has growing responsibilities, the Coalition is asking it to do more and more, and as a consequence, the SDF can only keep up with the Coalition demands by increasing mobilization from the population in the Northern Syria Federal Region," he concluded.
Syrian Kurdish officials have said that after Raqqa, it is possible SDF forces will fight ISIS in Deir ez-Zor province in eastern Syria.