On July 16, clashes erupted between the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jahbat al-Nusra, killing at least four Jabhat al-Nusra fighters in the city of Ras al-Ain, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports. The clashes took place near the Mahatta neighborhood, controlled by Jabhat al-Nusra, and Kanais Street, controlled by the YPG.

Ras al-Ain lies approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the unofficial local Kurdish capital, Qamishli, and is inhabited by 50,000 people, including Arabs, Kurds, Christians and members of the Kurdish minority religious group Yezidis.

The fighting follows increased domination of opposition-controlled parts of Syria by armed groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, which claim they are planning to set up Islamic emirates.

According to jihad expert Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at the Middle East Forum who tracks jihad in Syria, the rumor that al-Qaeda affiliates such as the Islamic State of Greater Syria is planning to establish emirates is plausible. 

In an email to Al-Monitor, Tamimi wrote on July 16, “In towns such as Jarabulus, where ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) has control, ISIS has declared an 'emirate of Jarabulus,' for instance. ISIS has an emir of northern operations: Abu Omar, (Chechen fighter) Jihad ash-Shishani who leads Jaish al-Muhajireen and was appointed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in May.”

Moreover, there are reports suggesting that the Democratic Union Party (PYD) affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and close to the YPG, wants to form a transitional Kurdish administration in Kurdish-controlled enclaves within three months and hold elections within six months to form a local Kurdish government in Syria.