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Rebels, Kurds battle despite Syrian truce
Source: Agencies |
October 27, 2012, Saturday
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SYRIAN troops shelled rebel-held areas and clashed with anti-government gunmen in several parts of the country yesterday despite an internationally mediated cease-fire, while rebels and Kurdish neighborhood guards fought a rare battle in the embattled city of Aleppo that left nearly two dozen people dead, activists said.
The new violence - coming a day after car bombs and clashes left over 100 dead - casts further doubt on the chances that the four-day cease-fire will be a springboard for ending the 19-month conflict.
The fighting in Aleppo's predominantly Kurdish neighborhood of Ashrafieh late on Friday occurred a day after rebels pushed into largely Kurds and Christian areas that have been relatively quiet during the three-month battle for the city.
Kurds say the rebels had pledged to stay out of their neighborhoods. Kurdish groups have for the most part tried to steer a middle course in the conflict between the rebels and the regime of President Bashar Assad.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 rebels and three Kurdish gunmen were killed in the clash that lasted several hours, the group said. A Kurdish official put the death toll at 10 Kurds, but had no figures for the rebels.
Mohieddine Sheik Ali, head of the Kurdish Yekiti party, said that the clashes broke out after rebels entered Ashrafieh, violating "a gentlemen's agreement" not to go into Kurdish areas in Aleppo.
He said there are 100,000 Kurds in Ashrafieh and many in the nearby Sheik Maksoud area.
Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria and make up around 10 to 15 percent of the country's 23 million people. Most of them live in the northeaster Hasakeh Province near the border with Turkey, but large neighborhoods in Aleppo as well as the capital Damascus are Kurdish-dominated.
In other violence, the Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees reported shelling and shooting yesterday mostly in Aleppo, the eastern region of Deir el-Zour, Daraa to the south and suburbs of the capital Damascus.
Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations-Arab League envoy, had mediated a four-day cease-fire that began on Friday to mark the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.
"The cease-fire collapsed nearly three hours after it went into effect," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory.
The new violence - coming a day after car bombs and clashes left over 100 dead - casts further doubt on the chances that the four-day cease-fire will be a springboard for ending the 19-month conflict.
The fighting in Aleppo's predominantly Kurdish neighborhood of Ashrafieh late on Friday occurred a day after rebels pushed into largely Kurds and Christian areas that have been relatively quiet during the three-month battle for the city.
Kurds say the rebels had pledged to stay out of their neighborhoods. Kurdish groups have for the most part tried to steer a middle course in the conflict between the rebels and the regime of President Bashar Assad.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 rebels and three Kurdish gunmen were killed in the clash that lasted several hours, the group said. A Kurdish official put the death toll at 10 Kurds, but had no figures for the rebels.
Mohieddine Sheik Ali, head of the Kurdish Yekiti party, said that the clashes broke out after rebels entered Ashrafieh, violating "a gentlemen's agreement" not to go into Kurdish areas in Aleppo.
He said there are 100,000 Kurds in Ashrafieh and many in the nearby Sheik Maksoud area.
Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria and make up around 10 to 15 percent of the country's 23 million people. Most of them live in the northeaster Hasakeh Province near the border with Turkey, but large neighborhoods in Aleppo as well as the capital Damascus are Kurdish-dominated.
In other violence, the Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees reported shelling and shooting yesterday mostly in Aleppo, the eastern region of Deir el-Zour, Daraa to the south and suburbs of the capital Damascus.
Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations-Arab League envoy, had mediated a four-day cease-fire that began on Friday to mark the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.
"The cease-fire collapsed nearly three hours after it went into effect," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory.
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