Jul 16, 2013

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.

“If they are declaring Islamic emirates, why can the Kurds not form their own government? It would be moderate, democratic and non-fanatic, and benefit regional and international interests,” Alan Semo, a PYD spokesman, told Al-Monitor via Skype.



While the PYD follows the PKK’s Marxist ideology aimed at establishing autonomous Kurdish regions in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, al-Qaeda affiliates want to use the civil war in Syria to establish an Islamic state. As a result, several clashes took place between jihadist groups and Kurdish fighters.



A week before the clashes, accusations were already made that Jabhat al-Nusra was arresting Kurds and provoking Kurds in Ras al-Ain — which Jabhat al-Nusra denied. According to pro-PYD websites, Jahbat al- Nusra was arresting and torturing civilian Kurds, and the PYD was afraid al-Qaeda-affiliated groups would try to enter the Kurdish-dominated city of Qamishli.



In Arab villages, south of Qamishli, several fights broke out on July 12 between Syrian government forces and the Free Syrian Army (FSA), and the YPG warned both of them not to bring the fight to Qamishli.



Furthermore, the PYD accused Jabhat al-Nusra of having ties with Turkey and claimed to have captured three Tunisian al-Qaeda members in Efrin, in Aleppo province where fighting is taking place between the YPG and Islamist combatants. The YPG, in a statement, rejected any entrance of non-Kurdish forces.



“There is no truth in the arrest of Kurds in Ras al-Ain by Jahbat al-Nusra,” said the group, accusing the YPG of trying to restore its popularity after the incidents in the city of Amude, where several Kurds were killed in tensions between the YPG and Kurdish protesters on June 27 — in which at least six Kurdish civilians were killed.