Clashes between Kurdish militias broke out in rural Kurdish areas of the province of Aleppo on March 7. According to UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least four fighters were killed, and other Kurds were captured by the the People’s Defense Units (YPG). The fighting shows the underlying tensions among Kurdish political groups in Syria and brings back memories of the civil war between Kurdish parties in neighboring Iraq in the 1990s.
The fighting broke out in the villages of Burj Abdilla and Abdilla in the Efrin region, in the province of Aleppo between supporters of the Kurdish Freedom Party (Azadi, in Kurdish) and the People’s Defense Units, an ally of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is close to the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that is fighting in Turkey for cultural rights for the Kurdish minority.
