Sarrin, Syria. August 9, 2015.
An American volunteer fighter aligned with the YPG militia reads a Bible in the roof of a house used as a defensive position near the eastern bank of the Euphrates river in the village of Sarrin.
The Euphrates now serves as a natural frontline between the YPG on the eastern side, and the Islamic State (IS) on the western side. The YPG hopes to move across the Euphrates to capture enough territory west of the river to establish the final links between its two eastern cantons, Kobani and Jazira, and its far western canton, Afrin. Kurds fear that Turkey may use a joint Turkish-US proposal to establish an IS free zone west of the Euphrates as a way to thwart the YPG's territorial ambitions there.