Islamists Free 300 Kurds in Northern Syria: Activists

VOA News –  July 21, 2013 – Syrian activists said Sunday that Islamist fighters battling Kurdish rebels in a town near Syria’s northern border with Turkey have freed 300 Kurdish civilians they had briefly detained in exchange for the local commander of the al-Qaida-linked group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamist commander in the town of Tal Abyad – known as Abu Musaab – was captured late Saturday during intense fighting between a group called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, and Kurdish fighters. The Islamist group retaliated by rounding up civilians believed to be relatives of the Kurdish fighters to hold as bargaining chips. The fighting subsided Sunday. A few days earlier, Kurdish fighters had pushed out Arab militants from the ISIS and al-Nusra Front from the strategic town of Ras al-Ain and its nearby border crossing with Turkey.

Syrian Kurds have been trying to expel al-Qaida-linked militants – many of whom are foreign fighters – from the northeastern province of Hassakeh over the past week. More than 60 fighters were killed from both sides.

Infighting between Islamists and more mainstream Syrian rebels, as well as between Kurds and Arabs, has intensified in recent weeks – part of a power struggle that is undermining their efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. Also Sunday, the Observatory said a pro-Assad militia killed 13 members of the same family, including six children, in the Mediterranean coastal village of Bayda. The killings came to light one day after they occurred, while clashes pitting rebels against troops raged in Banias nearby. Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman attributed the violence to a revenge attack motivated by sectarian hatred.

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