A group of civilians was recently rescued by the Kurdish project YPG (People’s Protection Units) and SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) from ISIS terrorists in Syria’s Raqqa city. The rescue was a sign of the battle drawing to an end, and the liberation of citizens from the clutches of ISIS.

As local anti-ISIS forces announced that the extremist group’s stronghold was in its “final” stages – it had imposed strict sharia rules in 2014 – one of the rescued women couldn’t contain her happiness.

A video (above) released by YPG’s Press Office on October 13 shows her exhilaration and exuberance at finally being freed. She starts with jumping, screaming and kissing the ground, and thanking and hugging YPG soldiers, just minutes after being rescued. Then, in an iconic moment, the women rips of her black robe, imposed by ISIS on all female civilians under their control, to reveal colourful, leopard-printed clothing underneath.

A video (below) by a Kurdish journalist, Nazim Dastan, also showed the civilians – thousands of whom were trapped in the city, and many used as human shields by ISIS – fleeing as they were liberated, including the woman in the video above.