KURDS FIGHT AGAINST KURDS: ʿAfrin: Three dead in fighting between People’s Defense Units and a Kurdish unit of the Free Syrian Army
ʿAfrin: Three dead in fighting between People’s Defense Units and a Kurdish unit of the Free Syrian Army
KURDWATCH, October 14, 2012—On September 27, 2012, Jigar ʿAbdurrahman Oso (b. 1981 in ʿAfrin) and Zuhair Hasan Muhammad (b. 1976 in ʿAfrin), members of the Kurdish Salahuddin-al‑Aiyubi battalion of the Free Syrian Army, were killed fighting members of the Democratic Union Party’s (PYD) Peoples Protection Units in the village of Isko near ʿAfrin. The Peoples Protectio Units member Ibrahim Maʿmo was also killed. The two parties each blamed the other of having lured them into an ambush. PYD-affiliated media accused the Salahuddin-al‑Aiyubi battalion of receiving financial support from the Turkish government and being close to the Syrian-Kurdish politician Salah Badruddin. In PKK circles, Badruddin is seen as a traitor financed by Turkey.