Kurdish women taking up arms to battle Islamic State

The militants of the Islamic State have struck terror into thousands during their murderous rampage across Syria and Iraq, but hundreds of Kurdish women are ready to take the fight to them.

Women from the Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have crossed over to Iraq to battle the Islamic State, the Mirror has reported.

Their presence on the battlefield is particularly discomfiting for IS fighters, who believe they will not reach Paradise if they are killed by a woman.

The female PKK fighters are specifically hunting the militants believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of thousands of non-Muslim women and girls during the conflict.

The girls face execution, slavery, or forced conversion to Islam at the hands of the fanatical IS.

The PKK has an unsavoury reputation in Turkey, where it has been accused of roadside bombings.

The Kurdish group is also listed as a terrorist organisation by NATO.

However, Iraqi terror analyst Nasser Kataw told the Mirror that the participation of the PKK alongside their fellow Kurdish fighters the Peshmerga, while being supported by US airstrikes, showed the threat level posed by IS.

"There has been a re-drawing of battlefield alliances as people who were once enemies have joined together to try and defeat the scourge that is the Islamic State," he said.