Fighters take part in an obligatory nine month training to join the Autonomous Protection Forces (APF) at a training camp in the northern Syrian town of Rmeilane on March 24, 2016. The commander-in-chief of the APF says thousands of Kurdish, Arab and Syriac Christian men between the ages of 18 and 30 have completed the compulsory training to joing the APF. For the first two months, conscripts are taught military structure and tactics, and then have lessons on human rights and interaction with civilians. Three stages of training are led by the powerful People's Protection Units (YPG), the military arm of the leading Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). / AFP / DELIL SOULEIMAN / TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY DELIL SOULEIMAN (Photo credit should read DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images)
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AFP DELIL SOULEIMAN