There is a new militia fighting ISIS that is adding to what some fighters say is a nightmare for the terrorist group — women killing the jihadists.

The Female Protection Forces of the Land Between the Two Rivers is a new group of Syrian Christian women training to fight the Islamic State in Northeast Syria. Although the group currently only has 50 graduates of its training camp, it’s expected to grow much larger. The group has been involved in one battle so far, fighting alongside Kurdish militias.

“I used to work for a Syriac cultural association, but now I take pleasure in working in the military field,” Thabirta Samir, a 24-year-old trainer with the group, told Agence France-Presse. “I’m not afraid of Daesh, and we will be present in the coming battles against the terrorists.”

Women have been fighting the Islamic State as part of Kurdish militias like the YPJ, which is the female fighting branch of the People’s Protection Unit, a Kurdish nationalist group. Kurdish fighters have said that ISIS insurgents believe they won’t go to heaven if they’re killed by a woman on the battlefield.

“[ISIS is] not some giant, holy juggernaut of ultimate damnation for unbelievers,” Hanna Bohman, a Canadian who travelled to Syria to fight ISIS with the YPJ, told INSIDER. “They’re just a bunch of filthy, mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging pigs who run away at the first sign of resistance. Really nothing more than a thorn in the side.”

Story by Allan Smith and editing by Adam Banicki

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