Arin Mirkan (Kurdish: Arîn Mîrkan, born Deilar Genj Khamis) was a female fighter in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) who died fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the Siege of Kobanî on October 5, 2014.[1] She fought on Mishtanour Hill with Rojda Felat, who later became the general commander of the YPJ .[2] On the hill, Mirkan killed herself, along with numerous ISIL fighters, with explosives, to avoid being captured alive by ISIS.[2]
Arin Mirkan[3] was 20 (or 22[4]) and a mother of two.[5] Haj Mansour, the Kurdish defence official in Kobani, reported that Kurdish fighters had been forced to withdraw from a strategic hill south of Kobani. Mirkan stayed behind, attacking ISIL militants as they surrounded her. She eventually detonated explosives attached to her body, killing ten enemy fighters.[3]
Twenty-seven ISIL fighters were thought to have died in the day's clashes, but it is unclear how many were the result of Arin's explosives.[6]
Memorials
In Kobanî a statue remembering Arin Mirkan was erected.[7] Andrew Webb-Mitchell composed a violin concerto named Arin Mirkan.[8]