Syria Today: The Kurdish Fight With Insurgents Escalates

EAworldview – By Joanna Paraczczuk – 22.7.2013 –The fighting between the Kurdish militia YPG — affiliated to the political movement PYD — and insurgents escalated further on Sunday, widening in scale and intensity.

The headline incident was YPG’s capture of an “Emir”, Abu Musab, in the town of Tal Abyad on the Turkish border.

Abu Musab — alternatively said to be part of the Islamic State of Iraq and as-Sham or of the Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra — was released hours later. He was exchanged for 400 Kurdish civilians, apparently taken in retaliation for his detention.

Tal Abyad is just west of Ras al-Ain, seized by the Kurdish militia last week after days of clashes with insurgents, including Jabhat al-Nusra.

Fighting was reported on Sunday in towns and villages throughout Syrian Kurdistan, extending from Jarablos in the northwest to Hasakeh Province in the northeast.