The U.S.-backed soldiers who battled ISIS across Syria and Iraq could be locked in the struggle for a very long time.  

As Donald Trump seized on fears of refugees and ISIS in his rise to the presidency, the battle to take down Mosul, the group’s crown jewel in Iraq, was just beginning. 

After a decade in the U.S., Lawand Kiki was forced to Leave for Damascus. 

Before the US joined the war on ISIS, before Trump abandoned them, the Kurds were waging a lonely fight against the jihadis in a forgotten patch of Syria. This is their origin story.