Mazloum Abdi

Ferhat Abdi Şahin (born 1967), better known by his nom de guerre Mazloum Abdi ( – ) and his previous nom de guerre Şahin Cilo, is a Syrian Kurdish military leader, serving as the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Various news articles have referred to him with the name "Mazlum Kobane." Early life Ferhat Abdi Şahin was born to Syrian Kurdish parents in Kobanî around 1967. Trained as a civil engineer at the University of Aleppo, according to Turkish sources, Abdi joined the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) within Syria in 1990 and was imprisoned five times by the Syrian authorities. While serving with the PKK in Syria, he became a personal friend of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. Abdi later conducted militant activities in rural areas of Şemdinli, Turkey in 1996. He left to Europe in 1997 where he was engaged in Kurdish political work until 2003, when he traveled to Iraq where he was allegedly involved in military work. According to Turkish sources, he served as member of the PKK high command in 2005. Abdi became a member of the People's Defense Forces' (HPG) special operations board from 2009 until 2011/12, when he was sent to Syria by the PKK in order to organise the YPG's activities in Kurdish populated regions of Syria amid the then escalating Syrian Civil War. Syrian war and Kurdish-ISIS war In August 2014, he was in charge of the negotiations the People's Protection Units (YPG) held in Sulaymaniya with Iran and the United States in order to form an effective alliance against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), after which an alliance with the US was agreed to. Abdi defended Kobanî during the Siege of Kobanî (Oct. 2014-Jan. 2015), refusing to withdraw despite US recommendations to do so. When his family's house was taken a 3rd time by ISIS in house-to-house fights, and given the increased collaboration with USAF, he requested a strike on his home. As the commander of the SDF, Abdi commands 70,000 troops.