Kurdish female militia vows to keep fighting Islamic State

BEIRUT – A Kurdish female militia that took part in freeing the northern Syrian city of Raqqa from the Islamic State group said Thursday it will continue the fight to liberate women from the extremists' brutal rule.

Nisreen Abdullah of the Women's Protection Units, or YPJ, read a statement in Raqqa's Paradise Square, where IS fighters once carried out public killings. She said the all-women force lost 30 fighters in the four-month battle.

Under Islamic State rule, women were forced to wear all-encompassing veils and could be stoned to death for adultery. Hundreds of women and girls from Iraq's Yazidi minority were captured and forced into sexual slavery.

"We have achieved our goal, which was to pound the strongholds of terrorism in its capital, liberate women and restore honor to Yazidi women by liberating dozens of slaves," Abdullah said.