WESTERN KURDISTAN NEWS BRIEFING, 28 January 2013

WESTERN KURDISTAN NEWS BRIEFING
28 January 2013

Militants in Syria intensify attacks on Kurds
26 January 2013 / Press TV
Foreign-backed militants in Syria have stepped up their deadly attacks on Syrian Kurds in northeastern Syria near the Turkish border, Press TV reports. On Tuesday, at least 56 people were reported to have been killed in a week of fighting between the militants, using tanks and mortars, and the Kurds, who make up almost ten percent of Syria’s population. The militants also clashed with the Kurds near the southeastern Turkish town of Ceylanpinar which borders the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain in the Hasaka province.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/26/285546/militants-in-syria-target-kurds/

Syria’s female revolution
24 January 2013 / Now Media
This article is one of a six-part series on the countries affected by the Arab Spring, two years after the uprisings that are reshaping the Middle East first began. Each piece explores a selected country’s battle for freedom from a different angle. When the Syrian uprising began almost two years ago, women took part in the peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, right alongside men. But as the conflict turned bloody – with regime forces bombarding towns, killing civilians and using rape as a weapon, and with some groups of rebels taking up arms – men came to dominate. Today, many believe that the uprising is becoming increasingly militarized and Islamisized, and that women aren't playing much of a role in the fight. However, there are arenas in which women are very active, and they play an indispensable role in keeping the rebellion strong.
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/reportsfeatures/syrias_female_revolution

Video: Kurds increasingly entangled in Syrian war
24 January 2013 / Al Jazeera
Fighters belonging to the Kurdish minority in Syria are increasingly becoming caught up in the conflict.
One group, The Kurdish Popular Protection Force, is battling the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the town of Ras al-Ain in the north.
The FSA is accusing the Kurds of being Assad's mercenaries.
But the Kurds say they are only protecting their own people.
Al Jazeera's Sue Turton reports from the border between Turkey and Syria.
http://www.aljazeera.com/video/middleeast/2013/01/2013124204226512276.html

Syrian Kurds and rebels battle over town
19 January 2013 / LA Times
Syrian rebel and Kurdish militiamen were battling Saturday for control of a northeastern Syrian town in a dramatic illustration of the deep fissures within Syria’s armed opposition. A Kurdish umbrella group, the Kurdish National Council, called Saturday on the rebel leadership to exert influence with its fighters to cease their attack on Ras Ayn, along Syria’s remote northeast border with Turkey.
The Kurdish group demanded that the opposition leadership “put pressure on these armed groups to stop this criminal war, which is detrimental to the principles and objectives of the Syrian revolution.” Whether the request will make any difference remains to be seen. Rebel combatants in Syria are heavily decentralized and generally follow no central command.
http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-syrian-kurds-and-rebels-battle-over-town-20130119,0,345466.story

Opposition Clashes with Kurds Raise Fears of Arab-Kurdish Civil War in Syria
27 January 2013 / Rudaw
Thirty-three fighters have been killed in Syria in fighting between the main opposition and the country’s Kurdish minority in the city of Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye) on the Turkish border, raising warnings of an Arab-Kurdish civil war.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reported the deaths, said that 28 rebels of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the main opposition fighting to topple the regime of President Hafez Assad, and five from the Kurdish Popular Protection Committee (YPG), were killed in last week’s encounter.
http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/5692.html