The People's Protection Units (YPG) is the democratic people's army of the Rojava government of Syrian Kurdistan in northern Syria. Formed in 2004 by Kurdish youth after 30 Kurds were killed in a crushed rebellion in Qamishlo, the YPG now consists of 50,000 fighters that have fought against the Islamic State, al-Nusra Front, and some Syrian Opposition factions in the Syrian Civil War to protect the autonomy that they achieved in northern Syria. The group's all-female body is called the Women's Protection Units (YPJ), and the YPG is all men, with most of the fighters being Sunni Muslim Kurds but some other members being foreign volunteers, Christian Assyrians, or Arabs. The YPG was instrumental in fighting the Islamic State in northern Syria, launching offensives to liberate Tel Abyad, Deir ez-Zor Governorate, and Manbij in 2015-2016; the YPG is also present in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood of Aleppo, where it is constantly fighting against the "moderate" opposition and jihadists. While the YPG is allied with the moderate rebels against the Islamic State, the YPG is not explicitly opposed to the Bashar al-Assad government, although there were some clashes between the Asayish police and pro-government National Defense Forces in Qamishli in April 2016.
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